In a recent write-up in The Indian Express (27 Sept. 2017, p. 6) by Shaju Philip “Kerala priests abroad: different stories, differing motivations,” you are reported as conceding “that assignments abroad did allow some priests to get rich.” Then you add: “The wrong motivations of priests going abroad should be corrected. Priesthood is not for making money. It is the duty of the bishop to correct malpractices.”

But what if some priests are determined to go abroad, and because their own bishop does not permit them, they approach some other bishop who incardinates them in his diocese? They in turn send him some money from abroad. This is not merely a possibility but a most unethical reality.

History repeats itself. Pope Leo X and Archbishop Albert of Mainz needed money for a wrong cause: the former to build a church that was not needed, the latter to recover the money he paid to become an archbishop. Both resorted to the same but totally unacceptable means to get that money: selling indulgences. I know for certain that selling incardinations is taking place in the Church of India today. We need another reformation. As then so now, we priests and bishop need the greatest reformation.

Subhash Anand
St Paul’s School, Bhupalpura, Udaipur