The S Word in the Indian Church

The “S” word -- When the skeletons tumble out

Responding with truth and humility                        

John Dayal

It has turned out to be a dark joke. But it used to elicit quite a laugh when friends in New Delhi asked young priests “Father, if you observe your vow of chastity as you observe your vow of poverty, God help the Church”.

It is no longer a question of fancy limousines, watches and gadgets, civil mufti -- clothing -- of the latest brands when not in the cassock, or even some murmured rumours of a hand dipping in the Sunday collections.

What has wiped the smile off many a face is the “S” word, spoken loudly in public.

Morals and morality amongst clergy, and some women religious too, once the subject of hushed rumours and smirks, is now being openly discussed by the Laity and religious, and in the non-Christian world outside. Underlying it is not a lascivious pandering to gutter gossip, or a dislike or suspicion of the religious personnel, but a deep concern about morals and morality that may threaten the existence of the Church in the Twenty-first century unless urgent remedial action is not taken.

It has emerged as a major malaise which has grown, like some virulent microbe, in the conspiracy of silence in a highly structured hierarchical Church. But it is not a problem for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church alone, or of the Latin Catholic Church. Protestant, Evangelical and even Pentecostal Churches, which do not enforce celibacy in the clergy and religious like the Catholic Church does, grapple with their own demons of corruption and moral turpitude.

Many were therefore not entirely unhappy when the Outlook Magazine, owned by a major industrial house which also dabbles in real estate and whose editorial policy tilts towards the Congress Party, chose to take out a sensational issue with an actress on its cover in the role of a Nun in her habit, and the huge headline “Sex, Scandal And the Church”.

Some self appointed protectors of the Church in Mumbai and other places raised the bogey of persecution. They see in it an outrage and a conspiracy.

Some senior Protestant Bishops, such as Dr Joab Loharu of the Methodist Church, also point out that the magazine exposé comes at a time when the Indian right wing and fundamentalist groups have been mounting a campaign against the Church.

That is true, of course. The Church is under sustained attack, and persecution rages, specially in states such as Karnataka. The body politic and governments at the centre and in the states show increasing tendency to try to put curbs on the Church as a political strategy to curry favour with the majority vote bank. Witness the increasing clamour for anti conversion awls in several stages. Even in Maharashtra and other States there is no anti conversion awl, pastors are routinely harassed by the police and civil administration, accused of trying tom convert people. It does not matter which political party does the government owe allegiance to – even the Congress governments are guilty. The BJP governments, of course, lead the pack.

Many other senior Christians preferred a sane response to the Outlook cover story, specially in view of the fact that the magazine had very little of its own reportage. All it had done was to reprint juicy excerpts from the “tell-all” books written by several former Nuns and priests in Kerala. And as a measure of ample precaution, it had carried interviews with important Catholics including the spokesman of the Syro Malabar Church, and for some unknown reason, also with Rev Valson Thampu, the Principal of Delhi’s St Stephen’s college which is governed by the Protestant Church of North India.

The letters column of the succeeding editions of Outlook will show the nature of the response from the established Church and from the faithful mat large.

I can predict that many letters will be of the great work that the Church and the faithful have done in nation building from the Independence struggle down to the building of schools, colleges, hospitals and the entire Nursing profession. I can also visualise some referring to Mother Teresa.

It is proper to remind the Indian people of the work done by missionaries, priests, nuns and others. This is not to claim any special dispensation, or even as a boast, but just as a plain reminder, as a duty done to the homeland and its people. A part of the calling that any good Christian, following in the footsteps of Christ would do.

It would also be important to remind the media in general and the Outlook magazine in particular that sensationalism can tarnish the image of communities and institutions, and that the sins of a few ought not to be vested upon the rest of the Church.

All this needs to be done, but it will be efficacious only if the Church and its leadership stop being in a state of denial. They have to, like good Christians and Catholics, confess that these things happen, and are increasing perhaps at an alarming rate. They ought to analyse the reasons, and it cannot be just as simple as celibacy as being the root cause of all sexual crimes. In the big wide world. married men rape, smoke of them rape little children. Some of them are ministers, politicians, scientists, policemen, artistes and journalists. Married priests in the Protestant Churches covet other people’s wives, when they are not selling properties, and this is true in the Evangelicals Church.

This is of course also true in Islam, Buddhism and most of all, in Hinduism because of its sheer large numbers. TV shows on a daily basis feature the sexual peccadilloes of self styled Hindu god men, some of them of the rank of Shankaracharyas. Even the late Satya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi had been accused, in the now defunct but once the leading magazine of the country, the Illustrated Weekly of India owned by the Times of India group The charge against him was of homosexuality. Lesser “saints” and Babas have faced charges of committing just about every crime under the sun.  

I mention these to assure the Hierarchy that they will not be an exception if they faced reality and said they will look into issues raised in the media and try to do something about it. Denial will not do. It will convince the people at large that the Church must be even more tainted than the Outlook made it out to be.

Many priests and religious men and women have told this writer that they have known of such matters either as hearsay or in their personal experience but have chosen not to speak or write about it. They have spoken of cases in seminaries, parishes, institutions. Many have mentioned priests who have had liaisons with women, or even have a wife. Others’ marital affairs have become known after their death, once in the case of a member of the hierarchy. Some alleged that this situation was the norm. Others agreed such was the exception.

It is important to remember that the expose on the Indian Church -- and it must be said that several Malayalam papers have carried such “scoops” in the past – comes in the context of a global exposition over the last few years of paedophilia and child abuse in dioceses in the US, Ireland And several European countries. In some of the, as in the US and Ireland, the State apparatus has intervened, imposing penalties. In other incidents, the Church has made over massive reparations to the victims.

But the Church hierarchy has to take its decisions in India. It needs authentic data for this. When Chief Justice of India Barucha famously said 20 per cent of the Indian judiciary is corrupt, a senior Jesuit friend told me that would be the percentage of men and women in the Catholic Church who were financially, morally or sexually tainted. Seems on the high side, but it would not surprise many. We expect Zero tolerance in the Church, but priests are human beings and the temptations of the flesh can be very strong.

It is time to take stock.

We must remember that in Kerala alone, as many as 63 priests have faced  criminal charges in recent years, some perhaps falsely, but a few quite rightly. This data is from blogs quoting documents yielded in Right to Information Act applications. The charges encompass murder, attempt to murder, rape, molestation, assault, abduction, theft, break-in and cheating. Two priests have been accused of murder while ten are charged with attempt to murder. One was arrested under Explosives Act. The worst is the charge or rape – and as many as five priests are accused of this.

Fr R S Pinto responded to my intervention in a Google group, “At the very outset, let me state that I believe no Catholic likes to hear about these things, said or published...no one will take pleasure in these things. Its abhorrent. But we have to hang our heads down in shame, specially living in a country where Catholics are less than 4 per cent. India has seen numerous works of charity that dedicated people did. Indeed the works done by yesteryears' missionaries in setting up schools & colleges, hospitals, orphanages and home for destitute is probably unparalleled. But all that is past. Today, apart from Mary Candy, Sr. Jesme, another nun who have written biographies and books to show the world the malaise that lies in the Church because of money and sex. They must have tried to get justice within the Church first, before writing their books, without success Fr. Jeypaul considered a fugitive from US was sheltered in Coimbatore. All these because the Church leaders sweep everything under the carpet. They consider the image of Church as paramount...at any cost the image should not be sullied, even if that means shielding the guilty Whoever airs the view to the contrary is branded as enemy of the Church and news item considered petty gossip, Zionism, imaginary fiction.”

That is the sort of response from most sincere Catholics, Lay or clergy.

 Communications expert Allwyn Fernandes, often a critic of the Church, says “Even if the number of delinquents is not negligible, there is still enough good work that has been done to stand out amidst the filth. Let us rather work to flush out the filth than try to hide it further.”

That is the sort of feeling that is emerging across the country. “We need to introspect in each our of confessionals and work for reform from within. There is a definite requisite for the leadership and Church hierarchy to be more open and provide space for suggestions toward improvement and not to be too rigid and conforming to Church tradition that enslaves and causes one to break in the sly. Let’s set our own house in order.”

Surely work needs to begin from the very beginning. We know that vocation is falling, and is now almost limited to the tribal belts. But even in times of scarcity, a certain level of flittering has to be done. The candidate is the building block of the Church. The seminary is where that block is moulded. If the foundations are strong, the products of these seminaries will be worthy of their training and of their vows.

I think it is time strong signals came from the Indian Church Hierarchy, as they have come from Rome, that the house in general --, and not merely the formation houses -- need s to be set in order. Perhaps Zero-Tolerance may not be possible day after tomorrow, but it is a laudable target and needs to be pursued. The first step would be a roving enquiry, including  social scientists, human resource experts and theologians, and a sprinkling of those with some forensic experience. That would be a good beginning. And it needs to be done before the State, for ulterior motives, seeks to intervene.