I was stunned by the news that was coming in during the evening. The Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Delhi, Father Anil Couto, has issued a letter to the entire lot of Catholics in India calling for the 'spiritual renewal' of the nation and a regime change after the General Elections of '19.
I have a serious doubt here. Do the heads of the Roman Catholic Archdioceses in different countries make policy statements on their own or do they've to get the Vatican's clearance prior to that?
One had heard of similar appeals made by the Christian clergy during the elections to the Gujarat Assembly, recently and I'd not given much thought to it then as I thought it was election rhetoric when every Tom, Dick and Harry feels that he has the right to utter pearls of wisdom, even if it's utter gibberish to the others! The sad part is that they don't realise that by advising the others to do a thing in a particular manner, they're actually infringing upon the fundamental right of the individual's freedom to think and make decisions by himself! So, aren't they acting against the spirit of our Constitution and if affirmative, aren't they punishable as per the law?
From my school days, I'd always thought that there was a lot of exaggeration when people told me that the Christian Missionaries, since times immemorial, had spread their religion and forced conversions on the other communities. Thinking that it was all hunky dory, many had converted into Christianity only to find that their lives continued to be the same but in the process, came under certain restrictions promulgated by the church. It was hard to reconvert and get back to their original religion because they would have found themselves to be outcastes as people lose respect of those who 'change colours' during adversity!
It was this thinking of mine that suffered a severe jolt after hearing the appeal of Father Anil Couto. He has certainly come down in my esteem for his comments that were unnecessary, unwanted. In fact, I'd like to go a step further and ask him as to how his life has changed after the present dispensation has come to power that has made him make such a misguided appeal to his flock. Further, I'm sure that many in his flock have independent minds and would any day cock a snook at such avoidable uttering from those of his stock! Had he been in any other country, he would have been tried for treason for making such an appeal!!
A very sad day indeed.
The flipside of the whole thing would be that the people will get a fair idea about the vested interests that are vying with one another to force the election results and that, essentially, is good for Indian politics in the days to come.
Tailpiece.
Today was the wedding anniversary of two couples in our family. Rema-Padmakumar and Ammu-Mithun. As is our custom we'd rung up, first thing in the morning to wish them, many happy returns. We'd planned to call Mithun-Ammu to come down to Palakkad by the evening after work and celebrate the foursome's special day there. But Mithun's younger brother was already there, at Coimbatore, along with his friends, for the celebration and hence, that plan was ruled out.
We'd decided to go by the low floor bus in the evening to Palakkad to celebrate Rema-Padmakumar's great day but even that was not destined to happen. The Vice President's short visit to Guruvayur and the consequent traffic curbs had thrown the spanner in our plans!
I have a serious doubt here. Do the heads of the Roman Catholic Archdioceses in different countries make policy statements on their own or do they've to get the Vatican's clearance prior to that?
One had heard of similar appeals made by the Christian clergy during the elections to the Gujarat Assembly, recently and I'd not given much thought to it then as I thought it was election rhetoric when every Tom, Dick and Harry feels that he has the right to utter pearls of wisdom, even if it's utter gibberish to the others! The sad part is that they don't realise that by advising the others to do a thing in a particular manner, they're actually infringing upon the fundamental right of the individual's freedom to think and make decisions by himself! So, aren't they acting against the spirit of our Constitution and if affirmative, aren't they punishable as per the law?
From my school days, I'd always thought that there was a lot of exaggeration when people told me that the Christian Missionaries, since times immemorial, had spread their religion and forced conversions on the other communities. Thinking that it was all hunky dory, many had converted into Christianity only to find that their lives continued to be the same but in the process, came under certain restrictions promulgated by the church. It was hard to reconvert and get back to their original religion because they would have found themselves to be outcastes as people lose respect of those who 'change colours' during adversity!
It was this thinking of mine that suffered a severe jolt after hearing the appeal of Father Anil Couto. He has certainly come down in my esteem for his comments that were unnecessary, unwanted. In fact, I'd like to go a step further and ask him as to how his life has changed after the present dispensation has come to power that has made him make such a misguided appeal to his flock. Further, I'm sure that many in his flock have independent minds and would any day cock a snook at such avoidable uttering from those of his stock! Had he been in any other country, he would have been tried for treason for making such an appeal!!
A very sad day indeed.
The flipside of the whole thing would be that the people will get a fair idea about the vested interests that are vying with one another to force the election results and that, essentially, is good for Indian politics in the days to come.
Tailpiece.
Today was the wedding anniversary of two couples in our family. Rema-Padmakumar and Ammu-Mithun. As is our custom we'd rung up, first thing in the morning to wish them, many happy returns. We'd planned to call Mithun-Ammu to come down to Palakkad by the evening after work and celebrate the foursome's special day there. But Mithun's younger brother was already there, at Coimbatore, along with his friends, for the celebration and hence, that plan was ruled out.
We'd decided to go by the low floor bus in the evening to Palakkad to celebrate Rema-Padmakumar's great day but even that was not destined to happen. The Vice President's short visit to Guruvayur and the consequent traffic curbs had thrown the spanner in our plans!
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