Oliver Twist, a character in Charles Dickens’ novel of 1838, by the same name, made an impassioned plea to Mr. Bumble: “Please sir, I want some more”. Oliver was a poor orphan being exploited by his masters. The watery gruel that they were fed was not enough to fill their bellies. Bumble, the master of the dining hall, was aghast at the orphan’s insolence in asking for more.
This incident came to mind when I heard about Swami Amalorpavadas being declared a “Servant of God” on 20th October. I had come to know about it a week earlier from Dr S John Bosco of Coimbatore, at a recent discernment meeting at Kochi. Now that the official announcement has been made, I rejoice.
I can’t be sure if I ever met Amalor, as he was popularly known. Nevertheless, I was in a way responsible for his death! Does that astound you? George Menezes, the outgoing National President of the All India Catholic Union (AICU), had asked me to organize a two day spiritual preparation for the Annual General Meeting and elections. I had invited Rev Ed Daly SJ from Patna, and Amalor, who was residing at his Anjali Ashram in Mysore.
Amalor didn’t turn up. Antony Vellara, the veteran AICU Secretary General, said that something must have gone wrong because Amalor was very particular about time. Shortly thereafter we got the shocking news that he had died in a road accident on the way to our meeting. He was driving his black Ambassador car .The body was then brought to St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore. We went there to pay our respects. One of his close disciples, John Bosco, who was attending the meeting, wept inconsolably, as though he had lost his own father.
Two days later, on Pentecost Sunday in May 1990, I was elected the National President of the AICU. I was just 39 at the time, the youngest to hold that office, the first from North India and the least qualified. Most of my predecessors were either Chevaliers or Members of Parliament. Menezes himself was a member of Pontifical Council of the Laity. I was the cockroach on the horizon. But I believe that together with it being Pentecost Sunday, the blood of Amalor also consecrated my term in office.
Several years earlier, Meera, my later to be wife, was attending a 10-day seminar at the National Biblical, Liturgical and Catechetical Centre (NBCLC), sometime about 1974. Amalor had founded this novel Centre in 1967 and was its director for 15 years before he was eased out.
At that seminar a religious sister was waxing eloquent about Natural Family Planning. It was shortly after Pope Paul VI’s controversial encyclical “Humane Vitae” that had denounced all forms of artificial contraception and alienated millions of Catholics. Meera asked the sister some uncomfortable questions that she was unable to answer, as she wanted to know more. The sister kept evading the questions. In exasperation Amalor blurted out, “Why aren’t you answering this young lady’s questions?” Amalor always welcomed a questioning mind. Like Oliver Twist he believed that people, especially the powerless, had the right to ask for more.
My comparison with Oliver Twist doesn’t end here. There is still a twist in the tail/tale. Oliver was a powerless slave. What was being dished out to him was a watery gruel. It was not sustainable food. He justifiably wanted more. Bumble, the master of the dining hall, was aghast at Oliver’s insolence. How dare he? The original text reads: “Please sir, I want some more”. There are two elements in the request – respect and assertion. They are not incompatible.
Now let us juxtapose this scenario on the Church. Oliver is symbolic of the powerless laity. They are dished out a spiritual diet that has diluted the Gospel, hence does not satiate the people’s spiritual hunger. The dispenser of favours is appropriately called Bumble! Is this how those in authority in the Church behave? Are they just stumbling along unable to face modern day challenges? Are their responses like a bumbling incompetent person? Do they resent questioning and asking for more? Are such persons branded as insolent, anti-clerical rabble rousers?
Comparisons are odious, but still convey a message. Amalor was no bumbling oaf. He felt the pain and quest for answers from the Olivers in the Church. The NBCLC was one response to that. He was also a great advocate of lay leadership and a strong supporter of the AICU, then known as the Catholic Union of India. He began a Jagruti (awareness) programme for training lay leaders, especially in the AICU. John Bosco was one of the beneficiaries. Though this Jagruti programme was before my time I had heard a lot about it. It gave birth to a whole generation of lay leaders. Sadly, lay leadership in the church has greatly diminished in inverse proportion to growing clericalism that is choking the growth of the Church.
Let’s go back to the “Church in India Seminar” held in Bangalore from 15th to 25th May 1969. It was preceded by over 100 regional consultations. This was in the first flush of Vatican II reforms. Amalor was ordained a priest in 1959. Vatican II was held from 1962-65. It would have had a major impact on the young Amalor.
Amalor, together with Rev Balaguer SJ and Patrick D’Souza (later bishop of Varanasi), were the prime movers of that watershed moment referred to as India’s equivalent to Vatican II. I will quote just a few observations from the same and leave the reader to decide if we have moved forwards or backwards. “Mission work gets only second place with more importance given to education … Priests should undergo spiritual renewal every three to five years … Honorific ecclesiastical titles should be abolished … The transfer of bishops is recommended … Distribution of food grains should be handled by the laity … There should be pastoral consultation in the election of a bishop … If there is already one Rite in a locality another Rite should not duplicate it”.
These recommendations were made 57 years ago. Far from moving forward we have regressed in the ecclesiology of Vatican II. Small wonder that in his later years Amalor began to feel stifled in the Church. He was a great proponent of Inculturation/ Indianisation. He advocated an Indian Rite rather than separate Latin/ Syrian Rites that are accidents of history. He believed in democratic functioning. He was once told that the church is not a democracy. His reply was classic. “It is more than a democracy, it is a family. You cannot have a healthy family (or society for that matter) without democratic values”.
I am grateful to Abp Francis Kallist of Pondicherry (he was formerly the bishop of Meerut) for espousing Amalor’s cause. There is another Meerut connection. My colleague in youth ministry was Samuel Francis, a priest of Meerut diocese. He took the name Sadhu Asteya and succeeded Amalor in Anjali for some time. Three years ago I went to pay my respects at Amalor’s Samadhi in his ashram in Mysore. I was deeply saddened to see its now decrepit state. I hope that the new bishop of Mysore will initiate its revival.
I have an inherent fear of people being raised to the altar as a Servant of God/ Venerable/ Blessed or canonized as a saint. We tend to pedestalise them. They are now up there for our adulation instead of being down here for our emulation. May Amalor, the Servant of God, not meet that same fate. It would be anathema to all he stood for. More than ever before the church in India needs a lot more of Amalor. With Oliver I too will reiterate, “Please sir, I want more”.
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