Category: Church Reform
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HARVESTING SOULS?
Back in 2000 Arun Shourie wrote a book “Harvesting Souls – Missionaries, their designs and claims”. It was a condemnation of everything remotely connected with missionaries. In the Indian context it was about our Christian presence. For those who came in late this book was written in the aftermath of his address to the CBCI…
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VARANASI VIGNETTES & VINEGAR
Varanasi has a special place in my life, long before “You Know Who” discovered it 10 years ago. It’s a long story harking back 55 years. The immediate cause for this piece was occasioned by the sacerdotal golden jubilee on 29th September of a good friend Rev Dr Joseph Satyanand of the Indian Missionary Society…
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FRATELLI TOOTI
Had I entered a Spelling Bee contest I would have failed miserably, considering that I have mis-spelt the title of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” that he wrote during the Covid pandemic. Unlike previous Popes, he wrote in Italian, not Latin. Seven centuries earlier St Francis of Assisi also preferred Italian to the classic Latin….
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WAS JESUS A CAPITALIST?
The question seems inconceivable and the answer should be a resounding “No”. But wait a minute. First listen to what Jesus himself has to say. “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have more than enough, but everyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has” (Mat…
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WHY ARE CONVENTS SHUTTING SHOP?
This malaise is now assuming menacing proportions in India
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ROGERS NOT OUT
Long before the advent of SMS and abbreviations like asap, “Roger” was a word frequently used in signalling and communications; especially between pilots of war planes. Roger was an expression of agreement or acknowledgement of a message. To end the communication, a pilot would say “Roger and Out”. This November 2007, I am writing…
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HOW PROFITABLE IS PERSECUTION?
This is indeed a strange title. It is borrowed from the Vatican II document “The Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World”. Let me quote it. “The church admits that she greatly profited and still profits from the antagonism of those who oppose or persecute her” (GS 44). Perhaps “benefit” would have been…
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HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!
Come Good Friday and some dear soul invariably calls or messages a “Happy Good Friday”! 2024 was no exception. It puts me in a quandary. How do I acknowledge the greeting without offending the sensibilities of the sender/ caller? It is equally odd when people in church gushingly start wishing each other a “Happy Easter”….
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DOGS & GODS OF WAR
This is an alarmist headline. It is meant to be. It is inspired in part by the novel “Dogs of War” written 70 years ago by Fredrick Forsythe. But this article is not fiction, for truth is stranger than fiction. Polytheist religions have Gods of War. Monotheistic religions, like Christianity, have on the other hand,…
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MAY THEY ALL BE ONE
A person’s dying wish is sacred. Jesus’ last desire, when “he raised his eyes to heaven” (Jn 17:1), was “that they may be one like us” (v11) and again “May they all be one” (v21). Jesus’ call to oneness (unity) of his disciples was based on his own deep relationship with the Father. That being…