.CHRISTIAN METHODS

A WIDE CANVAS 

CHRISTIAN METHODS

A friend has sent me a picture of a Christian Church constructed to resemble a Hindu Temple in Tamil Nadu.

St.Paul Church in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.




A real Hindu temple Gopuram below!

This does not surprise me at all. Christians in Tamil Nadu have been adopting many such measures  to attract the common people. They used love of Tamil language as a ruse to connect with people. One Italian  Jesuit priest, De Nobili who came to Madurai in 1606 adopted many local Hindu customs like dressing like a sanyasi, calling himself "Tattva Bodhaka", calling his church "kovil' (temple in Tamil), calling the Bible 'Vedam', etc. He even donned the sacred thread, made of golden threads, telling people: 'Look, your local Brahmins merely wear  the thread made of cotton yarn; look at me- I have come from Devaloka and wear golden thread!'. Subsequently, some other Christian priests also wore saffron and bore Hindu-sounding names like Abishiktananda and called their place an 'ashrama'. They spun yarn like: 'Your Mariamman and our Mary amma are but one'.

On 28 November, 1959,Pope John XXIII issued an encyclical  called "Princeps Pastorum"  permitting the church to adapt to local conditions and go in for a local hierarchy.  He followed it up with the Second Vatican  Council- called Vatican II- in 1962 which examined the issue of adaptation to modern conditions  and concluded, at the time of the next pope Paul VI in 1965. It permitted:

• use of vernacular languages
• use of local musical traditions
• adoption of Indian architectural patterns in church buildings 

It also renamed the liturgy ( catholic church rituals) in Indian terms such as:

• pravesa for entry
• prabodha for awakening
• smarana for recalling
• samarpana for offering
• darshan for the sacrifice
• preshana for  the blessing.

These matters were covered in a document called "Sacrosanctum concilium".

Since I  studied in catholic colleges and had access to their literature, I was aware of all these developments. ( One thing I want to make clear: between 58 and 62, I moved with many foreign priests; they  never even once spoke against our religion or about their dogma ; they always addressed only Catholic students.We kept pictures of our deities in our hostel rooms- they did not object. When in February 1962, there was great general apprehension about the conjunction of 8 planets, Nehru criticised Hinduism as being a "kitchen religion". Our principal, an Englishman, openly said in the morning Prayer meeting that Nehru was wrong, that probably he had not studied Hindu religion properly! Those priests were certainly not petty minded . It was my interest in general knowledge, before I developed interest in comparative religion, that led me to study this literature. But my experience with  Indian Jesuit priests between 62 and 64 was different: they were often petty, communal and partial towards Catholics.) 

But the real change came after the second visit of Pope John Paul II in November 1999. During the first visit , in 1986, he said he would come as the 'pilgrim of peace'. But during the second visit, he visited only Delhi, during Deepavali, and announced on the Deepavali day that in the first thousand years, they converted Europe; in the next thousand years they converted America and Africa; now in the third millennium, they must 'harvest souls' ( ie convert) in Asia and India. He specifically mentioned that Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs must be targeted.
Our  Prime Minister then, A.B.Vajpayee, complimented the Pope for having added light to the festival!

What it meant in effect was that India had become very important for conversion: QUINTESSENTIAL MISSION LAND.(in their own language)

The Chicago Tribune noted on 8 November 1999:

In the dusk of his two decade papacy, the pope made no concessions or conciliatory gestures......

Instead he launched a crusade for more Christian converts in Asia on the very day Hindus celebrated Diwali, their main annual festival marking the triumph of light over darkness, a time for hospitality,food and fireworks.

The very programmes that were arranged for the Pope's function showed how carefully they had planned to appropriate all important Hindu symbols on a Deepavali day:

• The Pope attended Mass at the Nehru stadium.It had three dances:one tribal , second prayer dance and the third called "offertory", leading the persons to the altar with the offering.
• A group of young ladies will offer "Arati" when the Pope takes the Chalice in his hands. This will consist of three steps: 
• "pushpa  arati", and the sprinkling of flower petals.
• "dhupa arati"
• "Deepa arati"- waving of camphor light,accompanied by the ringing of bells.

Thus all the elements of the Hindu ritual were adopted by them on the Deepavali Day in the Capital of India! They quoted the New Testament of John 8.12 that Jesus was the light of the world and that on that day he had become the light of India too! (They may next go on and say Hindus had taken the idea from the Bible, as they had claimed in Tamil Nad that Lord Muruga was adopted from their concept of the Son of God!)

 The Vatican issued a detailed document called "Inculturation of Liturgy" on 29 March 1994 in which they specifically recommended:

• local language translation of liturgical and other literature
• integrating local music and singing with liturgical functions
• adopting local art forms
• determining the shape, location and decoration of the altar according to local taste and needs

But they reminded the clergy that they should not forget the primary mission of the Church viz that it must take firm root in the soil and conversion should proceed apace.

Christian literature makes it clear that they are mainly targeting the Dalits. They are promoting the theory that they are the original inhabitants of India and that the Hindus have subjugated them. They also say that since they formed the lowest strata in society, they had not been made familiar with Hindu scriptures; now with education, they want to read religious literature like others and so Christian literature must be made available to them so that their urge to read religious literature is satisfied!

The Christian imitation of Hindu manners and ritual gestures are carefully planned and deeply thought out. We may expect even more such things in the days to come. 

But there is opposition to such practices even within the Catholic community; there are people who consider this as "Hinduisation" or "Paganisation of the Church" in India.

NOTE:

 None of the things mentioned here is secret. All information connected with Papal encyclicals, Pope's visit, other documents of the Church are readily available on the Web. See for instance:

- www.vatican.va/news../ns_lit_dic_05111999_newdelhi_en.html
www.novusordowatch.org/thirdeye.pdf by John Kenneth Weiskittel 

See also: Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Nilakandan: Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines.,Amaryllis, 2011. A Tamil version of the book is also available.