An administrative mishap seems to be rocking the Church in Kerala. I feel no one is to blame. It must serve only to be an eye-opener. The priests are not picked from among the cleverest. And a diploma from Rome does not deliver in the world of wild competitions. If only the Church personnel had the caliber to sense this naked truth and groomed themselves for real-life situations, so as to give Keralites the much needed leadership! Forget administration. There is something more at stake with the Church in Kerala. Prayer-life in Kerala has been irretrievably hijacked by impostors. There has been a mushrooming of prayer-centres whose authenticity is vindicated only by the “miracles” they perform and the size of the masses which they mesmerize by these. The complexity of the game is too subtle to be discerned at first sight. The Church would sleep it over so long as the phenomenon does not disturb the smooth running of her machinery, or even, enhance the smoothness!

A flawed spirituality can, in the long run, wreak disasters much bigger than administrative pitfalls, for the Church. The current outcry is disproportionate and misplaced. No regrets if the confusion proves to be a providential eye-opener to brace ourselves for worse imminent disasters.

Fr Thomas Kurian OCD