Asia News by Father Lester October 18, 2005 Inculturation has been the major source of contention for centuries between Rome and various churches throughout Asia. Some missionaries tried very hard to adapt their personal habits and even the liturgy to be easier for the people to accept. The problems came when the adaptations went too far, and turned into abuses. Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries held fierce debates in the courts of Rome to decide how far this inculturation should go. Today, with liturgical abuses so rampant in the church, the liberals are doing whatever they want in Asia. India is arguably the least westernized country in the world, so the cultural differences there are more prominent. Some missionaries, like Fr. de Nobili, changed their lives to fit into the Indian caste system, and became vegetarians so as not to offend their animist sensibilities. But none of those missionaries could have imagined how far some modern clergy would go... This picture was taken by SSPX priest Fr. Francois Chazal, who is stationed in India, during his travels. If you look closely you can see that it is actually a monstrance, and Our Lord is in a typical Hindu/Buddhist pose. An Indian newspaper last week reported, "The Catholic church will take up the study of Sanskrit (in which are written the Hindu scriptures), adapt to monastic life in an ashram (Hindu hermitage), and adopt the Hindu ritual of aarti during mass if the movement towards "Indianisation of the church" gets its nod form 400 priests and five bishops congregating in Pune. Aarti is a Hindu ritual in which light from wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) or camphor is offered to one or more deities. The article continues, "The Catholic church has already adopted a number of Indian traditions and practices...after the historic Second Vatican Council brought an epochal shift in the modern church through its declaration on religious liberty... Pune-based Catholic leaders have been stressing for lesser control from the Vatican, to make the Church 'truly Indian and genuinely Christian'." And in an ultimate appeal against all logic and Catholic sense, one Francis X D'Sa, in his paper published in Dreams and Visions: New Horizons for an Indian Church (2002), wrote "Today, the time has come for the Indian Church to shed its image of a multinational company and retrieve those characteristics which bring out its 'catholicity' in the best sense of the word." These churchmen are very mistaken about the very nature of the Catholic Church, which can never be Indian, nor American, nor Irish, nor French; but only universal. And the practices which they introduce into the Catholic mass are not Indian, they are Hindu! Including reading from Hindu scriptures. Take for example Father Michael Purattukara, of Narsimhapur, better known as Swami Sadanand. He is a Carmelite, but you would have to ask him to know since he wears the garb of a Hindu wise-man. He runs an ashram (typically a Hindu hermitage), and he recently gathered Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs for a function to celebrate their respective religious feasts in November. The ashram has a small chapel where religious books of various religions are placed near the altar, and the walls have symbols of different religions as well as a picture of Jesus. A neighboring Hindu farmer who regularly visits this chapel proudly said that inside the ashram he has never felt as though he was in a 'Christian place'. Who is converting who??? October 12, 2005 The fight over the Eucharist continues in the Vatican. While some bishops in the Eleventh Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops are pushing for a reversal of abuses and a return to tradition, the Asian bishops are fighting for "the importance of the inculturation issue for the Eucharist." Examples of this inculturation often include such abuses as placing dragon statuary, instead of angels, on each side of the tabernacle in China, and performing immodest pagan dances in India. Here are exerpts from some of the interventions: ARCHBISHOP JAN PAWEL LENGA M.I.C. OF KARAGANDA, KAZAKHSTAN. "Among the liturgical innovations produced in the Western world, two in particular tend to cloud the visible aspect of the Eucharist, especially as regards its centrality and sacredness: the removal of the tabernacle from the center and the distribution of communion in the hand. ... Communion in the hand is spreading and even prevailing as being easier, as a kind of fashion. ... Therefore, I humbly propose the following practical propositions: that the Holy See issue a universal regulation establishing the official way of receiving communion as being in the mouth and kneeling; with communion in the hand to be reserved for the clergy alone. May bishops in places where communion in the hand has been introduced work with pastoral prudence to bring the faithful slowly back to the official rite of communion, valid for all local Churches." Bishop Rafael Masahiro Umemura of Yokohama advocates "multiplying the ways of the Eucharistic celebration...in order to celebrate the mysteries of the life of the faithful in accordance with the various times and events." He says the Japanese people have a need for a Eucharist that "responds to the real situation of modern people." He emphasized the importance of local translations and adaptations of the liturgy, and he hopes that the Vatican will allow greater freedom regarding this. India's Archbishop Maria Callist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum told the synod the Eucharist is "the sacrament which recognizes the basic 'dignity' of every human person." And he expressed his gratitude to St. Francis Xavier who was able to help his people discover that a "manifestation of genuine Eucharistic devotion" is "to promote 'the dignity' of every human being." back to Singapore page