Kuruvilla Pandikattu SJ
JDV, Pune

It is heartening to read the Statement of XXXIV Plenary Assembly, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, held at Bengaluru from 13-19 February 2020. It holds that dialogue is the way to arrive at Truth though charity. It acknowledges that the Church has integral and all-inclusive dialogue at her heart. “Indeed dialogue belongs to the very essence of the Christian faith. All through her history the Church has made earnest efforts to engage in dialogue at different levels.” It affirms that “India has been a mosaic of many religions, cultures and languages with a strong Indian identity.” Then it adds: “What unites us is stronger and deeper than what divides us.”

Then it talks of the need for dialogue with cultures and religions. Every community that lives in India possesses its own cultural identity with its richness, which must be respected at any cost. CBCI warns against “attempts to homogenize and impose a mono-cultural pattern pose serious threats to the cultural patrimony of our country.” Then the Statement pleads for dialogue with the poor, Dalits and tribal people. Dialogue with nature and unborn are also priced. The statement is emphatic: “Interreligious dialogue is one of the most pressing needs of our times. There will be no peace among nations without peace among religions.”

Warning against “divisive cultural nationalism, which is radically different from Constitutional nationalism,” CBCI asserts the right to dissent. We are called to “recognize the legitimacy of different opinions with regard to temporal solutions, and respect citizens, who, even as a group, defend their points of view by honest methods.” So it appeals to the State authorities “to ensure that pseudo nationalism does not continue to give rise to new forms of totalitarianism.”

The document quotes Pope Francis: “Identity and dialogue are not enemies. Our own cultural identity is strengthened and enriched as a result of dialogue with those unlike ourselves. Nor is our authentic identity preserved by an impoverished isolation.” The Statement concludes by asserting that “dialogue is indeed the path to truth and charity.”

Not just in India, but all over the world, people are increasing asserting their own identity (at the cost of other’s). Prompted by fake news they isolate themselves in their own self-created reality, which is far away from the real world of pain and suffering. Instead of listening to the others, they seem to be carried away by monologue. Today there is a clear tendency to be satisfied with one’s own narrow identity and not to care for those who are different from others. In such a situation, it is truly heartening that the Catholic Church in India is clearly opted for democracy, freedom, inclusiveness and dialogue.

Only such a liberal attitude can save the world from our own narrow and egoistic words. Together, let us journey to that heaven of freedom, “where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth.”