The Syro-Malabar Church:
Its Identity and Challenges
Today
JUSTICE
KURIAN JOSEPH
First of all
I express my deep gratitude to
Bishop Mar Gregory Karotemprel
and other organizers of this
Global Meet for giving me the
opportunity to present this
paper on The Syro-Malabar
Church: Its Identity and
Challenges Today. I consider it
a great privilege.
At the outset
let me tell you that I consider
it to be a great grace to have
been born of Christian parents,
to have been brought up a
Catholic and to be the son of
the Syro-Malabar Church. I am
what I am because I was born and
brought up in this Church, whom
I consider to be my mother. And
I always try to remain a loving
and faithful son of my mother
Church. God has given me ample
opportunities to serve the
Church in various capacities. I
have been privileged to be the
first national president of the
Cherupushpa Mission League for
eight years. I have been a
member of the National Advisory
Council (the present Catholic
Council of India) of CBCI for 21
years and served as its first
vice president. For some time I
was also a member of the
Pontifical Council for Laity.
Every day I
take part in the Holy Qurbana,
which is the source and summit
of Christian life. Thanks to the
good example of my parents I
have been trained in this great
tradition of the Syro-Malabar
Church. Every day I spend some
time for Eucharistic adoration
before the Blessed Sacrament.
All the energy for my
professional, family and
personal life I draw from the
great sacrament of the altar. I
am also very much devoted to the
Blessed Mother of God. Daily
recitation of the Holy Rosary
and family prayer is an
essential part of my spiritual
life. I understand that being a
judge in the High Court is a
very serious vocation. It is a
call to be a witness of Jesus,
who said that “I am the way, the
truth and the life”. Before
making any judgment I always
pray for the help of the Spirit
of God, to illumine my mind and
to guide me in the path of
righteousness. With these
autobiographical confessions let
me begin the paper.
1.
Brief History
The
Syro-Malabar Church “has a noble
place among all the Oriental
Churches, because its origins
are traced back to the most
ancient Christian communities
who received the light of the
Gospel from Apostle Thomas”,
says Pope Pius XI
.
Our Church,
the Church of St. Thomas
Christians is an Apostolic
Church founded by St. Thomas,
one of the twelve Apostles of
Christ. From early centuries
the Church of St. Thomas
Christians came into
life-relation with the East
Syrian Church. This
relationship made the St. Thomas
Christians share the liturgical,
spiritual and other
ecclesiastical traditions with
the East Syrian Church. At the
same time St. Thomas Christians
kept their distinctive character
especially in Church
administration and
socio-cultural and
ascetic-spiritual life.
The head of the St. Thomas
Christian Church assumed the
title ‘the Metropolitan of All
India’. A St. Thomas Christian
priest with the title
‘Archdeacon of All India’ played
the role of the effective leader
of the community (Jathikukarthavyan).
The Archdeacon carried out the
administration through general
and local assemblies (Pallyyogams).
The socio-cultural life of this
community was fully Indian and
in their life of worship they
adopted certain elements of this
life. Their ascetic-spiritual
life reflected Indo-oriental
tradition. The sum total of
this life was called the ‘Law of
Thomas’ (Mar Thoma Margam).
In the 16th century
the St. Thomas Christians came
into contact with the Portuguese
missionaries. In the
beginning the encounter was
cordial but it developed into a
confrontation because the
missionaries in general failed
to accept a Christian life
different from theirs. Hence,
they launched a policy of
systematically making the St.
Thomas Christians conform to the
western form of Christianity,
especially through the Synod of
Diamper (Udayamperoor) in 1599.
Subsequently, in 1600, the
Church was brought under
Padroado rule. The reaction
erupted in a revolt (Koonan
Cross Oath, 1653) against
Padroado rule. This
resulted in the division among
the St. Thomas Christians. At
this stage the Holy See
intervened and introduced also
its direct rule through the
congregation for the Propagation
of Faith, Propaganda.
Although this was conceived as a
provisional arrangement it
lasted over two centuries. This
situation impeded the attempts
at reunion of all the St. Thomas
Christians made by Mar Joseph
Kariattil and Thomas Paremakal.
Despite conflicts and tensions,
the St. Thomas Christians also
profited in theology,
spirituality and discipline from
their encounter with the western
Church.
The struggle
of the St. Thomas Christians for
self-rule entered a definitive
stage towards the end of the 19th
century. In 1887 they were
reorgnized under two vicariates,
Kottayam and Trichur. In 1896,
when the St. Thomas Christians
obtained bishops of their own
rite and nation, they were
further reorgnized into three
vicariates, Thrichur, Ernakulam
and Changanacherry. In 1923, a
hierarchy, on the Latin
ecclesiastical polity, was
instituted for them. Ernakulam
was raised to metropolitan
status and Trichur,
Changanacherry and Kottayam
(1911) were made its suffragans.
In 1956 Changanacherry was
raised to the metropolitan
status.
From 1962 onwards mission
eparchies were erected, which
were not suffragans of any of
these two metropolitans. As per
the Code of Canons for the
Eastern Churches was promulgated
in 1990, in 1962, Pope John Paul
II raised the Syro-Malabar
Church to the status of Major
Archiepiscopal sui
Iuris
Church with the title of
Ernakulam-Angamaly. The proper
territory of the Major
Archbishop was determined to be
the two provinces of Ernakulam
and Changanacherry.
In 1995 Trichur and Tellichery
and in 2005 Kottayam were also
raised to the Metropolitan
status. Today the Syro-Malabar
Church has 5 Archdioceses, 21
Dioceses, 3282 diocesan priests,
2623 religious priests, 577
religious brothers, 29,039
religious sisters and 38,89,409
lay faithful.
2.
Understanding the Identity
To know
oneself is the greatest
philosophy, according to
Socrates. Who are we? Where do
we come from? Where do we go?
What do we expect? What awaits
us? These are some of the basic
questions in any human’s life as
well as in the life of any
meaningful institution. In this
paper we try to present the
self-understanding of the Syro-Malabar
Church and its Challenges
today. This is not an easy
task, especially taking into
consideration the present
“crisis of identity and crisis
of relevance”, which our Church
is going through.
As Bishop Paul Chittilapilly
expressed in his homily in 1996
to the synod of bishops of the
Syro-Malabar Church, held in the
Vatican, in which I had the
privilege of being the sole
representative of the laity:
“Our Church is going through an
important phase in her history.
The pangs of growth and vitality
is felt everywhere. It has also
shown tensions and anxieties and
sometimes it is pictured as a
very difficult and critical
situation… It is not only an
embarrassing but also a
frightening situation”.
Archbishop Powathil says, “The
question of identity is of vital
importance (for the Syro-Malabar
Church) since it has
far-reaching implications and
consequences for the life and
activities of the Church… The
present ecclesial status of the
Syro-Malabar Church is one of
search for the discovery or
re-discovery of the ecclesial
identity. None would call into
question the necessity of an
identity and a distinctiveness
of the Syro-Malabar Church,
though this is perceived in
different degrees of awareness
and understanding. Most of the
differences of opinion in our
Church in general or in the
episcopate in particular, are
traceable to an uncertainty as
to what constitutes an ecclesial
tradition significant for the
great Tradition”.
3.
Confusion of Names
“Even the name Syro-Malabar or
Indo-Chaldean, all admit, does
not suit our Church. Ours is
the Church of St. Thomas tracing
its origin to the apostle and
the early disciples. It is for
the lack of a suitable name that
we stick to the present ones”.
The territory of the St. Thomas
Christians, which was an All
India Church, was restricted at
one time to the Malabar area and
eventually this gave rise to the
term Syro-Malabar, first used in
a Roman document.
“The name Syro-Malabar is
disadvantageous, for (1) It
gives the impression that the
Church of Thomas Christians was
always confined to Malabar; (2)
Presently Malabar refers only to
Northern Districts of Kerala;
(3) In North Indian Missions the
name suggest that the so called
Syro-Malabar Church has no
relevance outside Malabar and so
it is hindrance for
evangelization”.
It is rightly proposed that the
name of the Church should imply
three ideas: a) That the Church
is of Apostolic origin going
back to St. Thomas; b) That is
not and was not confined to
Malabar or Kerala; c) That has
universal dimension.
I think that
it is high time that, as part of
our self-understanding, we come
to an agreement on a relevant
name for our Church.
4. What
is Identity?
“Identity is individuality or
personality. It is the
distinctive character and
appearance belonging to an
individual or a class, by which
it is being known. An
individual or class is
distinctive only when it is
identifiable in its specific
characteristics; inversely
nothing is distinctive which
lacks its original and specific
characteristics. Identity is
that which is undivided in
itself, but divided from
others. As in the case of a
human person the identity of a
Church is not an easily
definable reality and we cannot
fully exhaust it either. In
general, we can say that it is
the manifestation of what the
Church actually is. The
identity is something, which is
being expressed by a particular
form of living. By identity we
mean that which constitutes
something unique. There is
organic continuity and growth.
Hence it is never dead or
stagnant but a living, dynamic
and organic reality”.
The ecclesial identity is rooted
in the tradition, which has come
from the apostles through the
Fathers of the Church (OE, 1).
‘Tradition’ is the apostolic
Christ-experience incarnated in
a people, taking a specific form
of life, spiritual heritage,
integrated into the
socio-cultural milieu of that
people. Hence the Church can be
practically identified as the
‘Tradition”.
In order to
bear in mind the correct
Catholic understanding of
Tradition, let me quote Pope
John Paul II: “When the uses and
customs belonging to each Church
are considered as absolutely
unchangeable, there is a sure
risk of tradition losing that
feature of a living reality
which grows and develops and
which the Spirit guarantees
precisely because it has
something to say to the people
of every age… Tradition is never
pure nostalgia for things and
forms of past, nor regret for
lost privileges, but the living
memory of the Bride, kept
eternally youthful by the Love
that dwell within her” (Orientale
Lumen, 8).
The core of
the Church is the apostolic
Christ experience. This
apostolic Christ experience –
faith – is received into the
socio-cultural milieu of a
people, giving rise to a certain
way of life expressed in their
liturgy, spirituality, theology
and discipline. Hence liturgy,
spirituality, theology and
Church discipline are decisive
elements for the identity of a
Church.
Basic characteristic features of
the Syro-Malabar Church can be
expressed in following four
dimensions: Apostolic,
Catholic, Oriental and Syro-Malabar.
The identity of a Church is a
complex reality which includes
the apostolic heritage of all
the Churches of the Catholic
Communion, the patrimony common
to all the Oriental Churches,
the liturgical, spiritual,
theological and disciplinary
patrimony of the tradition to
which that Church belongs, and
to specific elements which it
has developed in the concrete
socio-cultural and historical
milieu.
a) Apostolic:
Syro-Malabar Church is an
apostolic Church, founded by St.
Thomas the Apostle. This is the
unanimous, unbroken and living
tradition, which is accepted by
all the members of the Syro-Malabar
Church. “One important aspect
of the identity of the St.
Thomas Christians was and
continues to be their
consciousness of their apostolic
origin”.
We have a deep attachment to St.
Thomas, our Father in faith, who
confessed his faith in Christ:
My Lord, My God”. We celebrate
his martyrdom with the feast of
Dukhrana.
“It is reasonable to believe
that St. Thomas must have
organized the Church he founded
in India along the lines adopted
by the other Apostles respecting
the local language and customs”,
says Father Varkey Vithayathil,
our present Major Archbishop of
the Syro-Malabar Church. “We
can reasonably think that the
apostle gave his converts a way
of worship suited to their
culture in their own native
language and that he did not
impose any Jewish customs on
them”.
“If the apostolate of St. Thomas
is accepted, its natural
consequences and logical
conclusion, namely, that the
apostle must have left behind
some form of ‘breaking of the
bread’ and the celebration of
other ‘sacraments’ also is to be
accepted”.
“St. Thomas Christians were
deeply conscious of their
apostolic tradition. They had
no doubt that they belonged to a
Church of apostolic origin and
they were in a spiritual and
real way linked with their
father in faith and his
apostolate”.
I believe that there is complete
agreement in our Church
regarding the apostolic origin
of our Church.
For the St. Thomas Christians,
Christianity is not a set of
doctrines, concepts or dogmas,
but a way of life (margam),
which contained the faith,
liturgy, spiritual life,
discipline, traditions and
customs, or in other words the
whole ecclesial, socio-political
and cultural life situation
of the St. Thomas Christians.
b) Catholic:
All the Churches in the
Catholic communion have a common
patrimony – the same faith, the
same sacraments and the same
hierarchical government, which
express the unity of the Church,
the body of Christ. St. Thomas
Christians always lived in this
Catholic communion, with loyalty
and obedience to the Vicar of
Christ, the visible sign of
Catholic Communion, even though
our history has been often
complicated and some people even
today put into question the
history of our Catholicity.
St. Thomas Christians, prior to
the arrival of the Portuguese,
had been living their life
according to the ‘Law of
Thomas’, which is a combination
of two elements, i.e., the
geographical, political, and
socio-cultural environment of
India and the ecclesiastical
world of the East-Syrian Church,
whose prelates were shepherding
them, whose theological outlook
and liturgical form they share.
According to Fr. A. Mathias
Mundadan “It is this life in two
worlds, which gave those
Christians their pre-16th
century identity. It is this
identity the Christians
characterized as the ‘Law of
Thomas’, distinct from the
‘Laws’ or customs established by
St. Peter and other Apostles.
It is this identity which came
into conflict with the identity
of the Christians from the West,
a conflict which gave rise to
various moments of tension and
exploded in the form of a
rebellion in the middle of the
17th century, and
shattered the unity of the
ancient Indian Church”.
In spite of this legacy of
tragic history, St. Thomas
Christians always remained in
the Catholic communion. In 1952,
Pope Pius XII expressed his
satisfaction that “the Christian
community formed by the Apostle
conserved intact the legacy he
left them.” In 1980 Pope John
Paul II declared, “It has never
been severed from the communion
with the Church of Rome”.
c) Oriental:
The Oriental Churches have
certain common features and
basic orientations in liturgy,
theology, spirituality and
discipline. Alexandrian,
Antiochean, Armenian, Chaldean
and Constantinopolitan are the
five great Oriental traditions.
Each of these traditions has its
own specific nature and
characteristic features in
liturgy, spirituality, theology
and discipline. The Syro-Malabar
Church shares the oriental
characteristic features through
the East Syrian tradition.
“In general today, the bishops
and the people of the Syro-Malabar
Church agree that our Church is
an individual or sui iuris
Church and that it has shared
the East Syrian liturgy.
However, regarding the history
and implications of it all are
not in agreement”.
According to some, the identity
and sources of the Syro-Malabar
liturgy are not to be sought
after in the East Syrian
tradition alone, but also in
other influences and traditions
According to others the liturgy
of the Syro-Malabar Church is
identical with that of the East
Syrian Church and hence its
sources are to be sought in that
East Syrian tradition.
d) Individual Ecclesial Identity
of the Syro-Malabar Church:
The Catholic Church is a
communion of different sui
iuris Churches. The Syro-Malabar
Church is the second largest of
all the Eastern Catholic
Churches.
What is an autonomous or sui
iuris Church? Code of Canons
of the Eastern Churches is very
clear and precise about it.
According to canon CCEO, c.27,
the essential features of a
sui
iuris
Church are: 1) A community of
Christian faithful, 2) Joined
together by a hierarchy
according to the norms of the
law, 3) Recognized as sui
iuris by the supreme
authority of the Church.
In applying the word ‘patrimony’
(heritage) to the Syro-Malabar
Church, it is to be understood
in a wider sense. It is not
merely what is inherited from
the Apostle Thomas (apostolic
patrimony); nor is it Chaldean
traditions alone. It also
includes and is complimented
with the heritages the Syro-Malabar
Church acquired and handed down
from the Indian customs,
Chaldean rite, Latin rite, etc.
5. Liturgical Identity of the
Syro-Malabar Church
Church manifests herself in
liturgy. Liturgy is the
celebration of the faith of the
Church. Pope John Paul II
states in his recent Encyclical
Ecclesia de Eucharistia:
“The Church draws her life from
the Eucharist. This truth does
not simply express a daily
experience of faith, but
recapitulates the heart of
the mystery of the Church”.
Liturgical identity is an area
where our Church is still
striving to reach a consensus.
The liturgical principles of the
Second Vatican Council:
restoration, adaptation and
inculturation are yet to be
fully implemented in our Church
with pastoral maturity. Here I
recall with gratitude the great
contribution of Cardinal Joseph
Parecattil, the first Cardinal
of our Church.
Without being an expert in
liturgy, I experience that the
Syro-Malabar Qurbana text is a
precious gold mine. It is a
very rich text of the
Trinitarian, Christological and
pneumatological themes. At the
same time, I think that in our
liturgical renewal, one has to
take into consideration various
influences and traditions of the
two thousand years of history of
our Church.
Liturgy is an area where there
is still need of genuine
Christian dialogue at all levels
in order to reach an ecclesial
consensus. As Robert Taft,
former Vice Rector and Professor
of the Pontifical Oriental
Institute, Rome, remarks, what
is needed is “the dialectic of
‘nova et vetera’, tradition and
renewal”.
And he gives a guideline for
this dialogue: “The past is
instructive, not normative.
History does not teach us what
we should do today, and we study
the past not to imitate it, but
simply to understand, What the
Church adheres to is not history
but tradition, and tradition is
not the past but the Church’s
self-consciousness now of the
present living reality that has
been handed on to it out of its
past. In judging what is
tradition the Church, under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit,
looks not into the past but
within, to itself”.
He further proposes certain
concrete principles: They are
1) Recovery of the tradition
where it has eroded 2) Renewal
where needed 3) Fidelity to the
substantial unity of the Rite 4)
Seriousness of purpose and
preparation 5) Ecumenism 6)
Inculturation 7) Implementation
and ongoing formation 8)
Pastoral realism 9)
Concentration on the essentials.
I think that it is high time
that our bishops and liturgical
experts take serious efforts in
order to reach a consensus on
liturgical matters.
It seems that it is along the
same line that the theological,
spiritual and disciplinary
identity of the Syro-Malabar
Church has to be rediscovered.
6. Concerns and Challenge
Having dealt with the identity
and self-understanding of our
Church, let me now come to the
concerns and challenges our
Church faces at present.
a) Communion in the Church:
The most important concern and
challenge, which the Syro-Malabar
Church has to face, is the
internal unity and communion in
the Church at all levels. Sr.
Mary Benitia CHF, former
superior general of the Holy
Family Congregation, expresses
this concern in the following
words: “As a representative of
the Syro-Malabar religious
women, I would like to express
our sentiments before this
Synod. For us, religious women,
Liturgy is the center of our
religious life. We strive very
much, to deepen our love towards
the Eucharistic Lord. The
present controversy has created
much disunity among our faithful
and it creates confusion in
spiritual life and our apostolic
field. We experience much pain
in our hearts. It is our prayer
to Our Lord and humble request
to our ecclesiastical
authorities that this situation
may be settled soon, peacefully”.
This was expressed in the Synod
of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar
Church held in the Vatican in
1996. Since then, in spite of
some disturbing experiences, the
Church has grown into a mature
attitude of consensus under the
prudent leadership of our Major
Archbishop, His Beatitude
Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil.
All the members of the synod
have played a positive role for
this state of affairs. The
Central Liturgical Committee of
the Syro-Malabar Church too
paved the way for a smooth going
in the liturgical matters. The
Liturgical Research Center of
the Syro-Malabar Church erected
in 1999 is now playing its role,
by conducting research seminars
and publishing scholarly books,
in bringing about understanding
and consensus especially in the
field of liturgy. Let us hope
that genuine spirit of dialogue
at all levels will lead to a
long-standing spirit of
communion in the Church.
b) Pastoral care of the
Syro-Malabarians in India and
Abroad:
As most of you are aware, the
issue of the pastoral care of
our sisters and brothers in
India and abroad continues to be
of major concern of the Syro-Malabar
Church. Both the hierarchy as
well as the faithful has been
repeatedly asking for the
implementation of the directives
of the magisterium in the
case of the Syro-Malabarians.
The only significant development
in this regard is the erection
of the eparchies of Kalyan and
Chicago and a few parishes in
Bangalore and Delhi for the Syro-Malabar
faithful. The Syro-Malabar
faithful in many other cities of
India and in the Gulf countries
are not given adequate pastoral
care. I need not elaborate the
issue further, because most of
you are victims of this
inadequate pastoral care.
In the present circumstances the
Syro-Malabar Church is not in
position to look after the
pastoral needs of its migrant
sons and daughters, because she
has no jurisdiction in the areas
where these migrants live. At
the same time it is the right
and duty of the Church to take
care of them. The Church has to
ensure that the faithful are
provided with the means to grow
up in their own ecclesial
traditions everywhere in the
world. Likewise it is the right
and duty of the faithful of each
sui
iuris
Church to have worship according
to the norms of their own
Church.
It is needless to say that there
is urgency in taking adequate
measures for the pastoral care
of the Syro-Malabar migrants
both in India and abroad. A
good number of migrants who are
uprooted from their cultural and
geographical background are
totally estranged in the local
situation. They often become
anonymous in the large majority
of the people of other religions
and of other Christian
churches. That may lead some to
the loss of faith and others to
the influence of the Pentecostal
sects.
That is why expressing the
sentiments of the bishops of the
Syro-Malabar Church, Cardinal
Antony Padiyara had appealed:
“Pastoral care of the Syro-Malabar
migrants within and outside
India has been a growing concern
of this Church. But unless due
co-operation is had from all
including the Roman dicasteries,
…, the Syro-Malabar hierarchy is
in a helpless situation. I
appeal to His Holiness to take
immediate steps for the
implementation of the Council
directives in this regard”.
As a humble layman, my appeal to
the present Holy Father is the
same.
c) Possibilities of
Evangelization:
One may recall the Mission
Assembly of the Syro-Malabar
Church held from 12 to 14
November at Mount St. Thomas and
the resulting Mission Policy,
TO BE THE SALT OF THE EARTH AND
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD,
January 2006. It reads: “A
mission policy of the Syro-Malabar
Church should thus take into
account her rights and duties as
a sui juris Church, her
eastern ecclesial heritage and
Indian origin. The Syro-Malabar
Church form her mission policy
based on the Magisterium of the
Universal Church, directives of
the Holy See and the Synod and
her own ecclesial heritage and
dynamism. This mission policy of
the Church should invite all her
children to become more
conscious of their missionary
responsibility and encourage all
to fulfill their missionary
duties in their living context
with greater commitment and
enthusiasm”. Jesus gave the
mission mandate to all his
disciples. It is a God-given
responsibility to all
irrespective of their ecclesial
tradition and Rites. Syro-Malabar
Church is still deprived of this
right and duty, due to
inter-ecclesial
misunderstandings. As Bishop Mar
James Pazhayattil stated, “the
restriction imposed on the
rights of the Syro-Malabar
Church (in the field of
evangelization) goes against the
principles of evangelization and
missionary consciousness of the
Universal Church”.
The activities of Cherupushpa
Mission League and the erection
of the mission eparchies of the
Syro-Malabar Church have
certainly enhanced in a big way
the missionary dynamism among
its members. The mission
eparchies of the Syro-Malabar
Church are doing excellent work
in many parts of India. One
should be grateful to the
missionary personnel of our
Church, especially the religious
men and women.
Here I would like to remember
the numerous missionaries, both
men and women, working in many
of the Latin Diocese in India
and abroad. I am sure that the
heroic life and martyrdom of Sr.
Rani Maria FCC will be an
inspiration for missionary
vocations in our Church.
But the Syro-Malabar mission
eparchies are erected as
suffragans of the Latin
Metropolitans. This means that
they are not canonically related
to the Mother Church, though
they are called eparchies of the
extended territory. Syro-Malabar
Church should have all India
jurisdiction. If that is not
possible now, the proper
territory of the Syro-Malabar
Church should include the
territories of these eparchies.
Syro-Malabar Church has still a
lot of potentialities, which can
be made use of in the field of
Evangelization. Let us hope
that our Church will be given
enough opportunities to make use
of these potentialities for
evangelization in different
parts of India. At the same time
I think that the mother Church
in Kerala should be more aware
of the missions, should show
more concern towards the mission
dioceses and should be generous
in helping the mission both
spiritually and materially.
d) Ecumenism:
The Syro-Malabar Church has a
greater obligation to work for
the unity especially with its
sister Churches of the St.
Thomas tradition. As we have
seen in the historical sketch
the unity of the Church had been
broken at different stages of
history due to different
historical vicissitudes. One of
the most important elements in
the search for unity of the
Churches of St. Thomas tradition
is rediscovery of the authentic
identity of Church in its
liturgy, theology, spirituality
and discipline, taking into
consideration the culture and
historical circumstances of the
people.
e) To be a Witness of Love
amidst a growing culture of
hatred and violence:
India is witnessing a growing
tendency of hatred and violence
due to religious, caste and
political exploitations. In
these circumstances we are
called to be witnesses of love
of Jesus Christ. “Authentic
evangelization is sensitive to
local culture and
custom…Therefore, in your
relations with your brothers and
sisters of other religions, I
encourage you to ‘strive to
discern and welcome whatever is
good and holy in one another, so
that together you can
acknowledge, preserve and
promote the spiritual and moral
truths which alone guarantee the
world’s future’ (cf. Address to
Religious Leaders in India, 7
November 1999, 3)”
says John Paul II.
f) Call to Witness in a
Secularized Consumeristic
Society:
Kerala society is now
experiencing tremendous change,
which has ushered in a new
life-style in Kerala. This has
particularly affected the middle
class. One of the most
significant features in the
Christian community in Kerala is
the alarming decline in birth
rate. Another change is the
rapid decline in agriculture.
The increased interest in
salaried jobs in and around
urban areas has broken the
traditional pattern of rural
families. Another factor is the
increasing number of working
women. This trend has brought
serious repercussion on the
religious attitude of women and
their role in the value
education of children. The
Kerala society seems to be going
through a fast secularization
process due to the urbanization
as well as through the
tremendous influence of the
secular media, including the
cable TV. Thus our Church is now
experiencing a slow but steady
decline in vocations to
priesthood and religious life,
first in quality and now also in
number. In spite of the growth
of religious institutions,
retreat centres, etc, Kerala
society is losing its concern
for religious and moral values.
The widespread and rampant
corruption, lack of sense of
justice, lack of concern for
common good, exploitation of the
public property, increasing
search for pleasure at any cost,
the mad rush for riches without
any regard for the means for
achieving them, the
disintegration of traditional
family and sexual mores – all
these indicate an all round
secularization. The image of the
Church, which has to be the
guarantor of moral values, in
spite of its great service to
the society in the field of
| 
