P. A. Chacko

Her Story is welcome as long as she is a rebel with a cause. People salute Jhansi Rani and Mother Teresa, among others, as women who rebelled with a cause. Even heroic tribal women have taken up leadership and have fought alone or alongside their men folks for freedom and liberation of their people. They need to be saluted. Because, they fought for a noble and worthy cause.

The recent trends in the Kerala Church with some nuns turning rebels to open laundry shops with volcanic urge at street junctions to wash everyone else’s ‘dirty linen’ in public are a matter of concern. Some have come out of their so-called ‘confinement’ to make a fast buck by delivering salacious stories to tickle the fanciful and emotional taste buds of those waiting to grab a bite. There are others who cry foul and rebelliously remain within the four walls of the convent and use its facilities to file criminal cases against colleagues or superiors. They are also reported to churn out surreptitiously   waste material through kitchen outlet packed neatly and attractively for ads on commercial channels which oblige as street vendors.

Such people attract attention, the type of which was not forthcoming from their other convent colleagues. They attract attention because they have lots to say about titillating hearsay stories or reported narrations. They claim to have been mute witnesses to colleagues living in suffocating situations of suppressed volcanic emotions waiting to erupt at the least provocation. However, they themselves, on their part, appeared to have remained like Himalayan granite while all others remained like half burning-out stumps or seeking choice outlets for extra-curricular activities. The rocky virgin saints chose to rebel out with a decision not to look back. But, the way of the world prompted them to look back to the ‘onions of Egypt’ and cook them with salacious stories as fodder for the golden calf.

They do not publicize stories not just about nunneries only. They describe priests as sex charlatans waiting at every nook to grab and run. But, in all appearance, with sheer determination these Himalayan rock pieces withstood any urge for the flesh pots of Egypt and survived by savouring only the manna of the desert in order to remain in their pristine purity. ‘Thereby hangs a tale.’

That is her story. Claiming it to be undiluted and unpadded! Some people have ignored such tailor-made tales as cheap agenda-based commercial stories. They accord to them ‘the contempt they deserve’ because they say that such acts are just sensationalism and mudslinging with a holier-than-thou front. This gentry says that ‘when you point out your index finger at someone in accusation, be aware that there are three other fingers pointing back at you.’

On the other hand, there are others who are waiting to get tickled by fanciful and salacious descriptions or to get even with the church with a malicious urge or a communal angle. There are also some who want to bring bad repute to the Church because they might have had a rub with an odd churchman or a woman. Such people generalise matters and make a blanket judgement to cash in on the situation. There is still another set of people who indulge in disputations about blazing fire while they see only smoke. The point I want to make is the surprising way such people dish out illogical and ignorance-wrapped arguments about religious vows of poverty and obedience in religious congregations. Even Academic pundits can wax eloquent on channel shows condemning the practice of poverty in convents. There was such a gentleman who recently argued that religious poverty does not mean that nuns should not have their ‘earned money’ (salary) at their disposal to use it as they like. The nuns who rebel also parrot the same argument of the concept of ‘private property’ which they say does not go against angelical poverty.

One important thing that needs clarification is that evangelical poverty is both individual and communitarian. You earn money and the community or the superior representing the community decides how such earning needs to be used for individual needs and for community needs. There can be earning members and non-earning members in a religious community. Therefore, people who do not understand the implications of evangelical poverty should need to get educated and enlightened about the poverty phenomenon in religious life. Let people know that when a religious person says good bye to the chosen way, she or he would, under natural justice, be helped financially to rehabilitate and arrange a decent security for future. Religious authorities are not brute heartless authoritarians who have no conscience.

When it comes to obedience, there is a way of procedure. A religious congregation consists of a group of people who have formed a family community and, by constitutional arrangement, there is a superior who is authorised to govern the community. That is where his or her directions are to be obeyed. This obedience is not of military style, but voluntarily accepted by members for smooth governance. Decisions are taken or rules are made keeping in mind the welfare and orderly running of the community. Now, after having willingly and consciously surrendered oneself to a particular way of life according to the rules of a particular religious order or congregation, can one chart out one’s own path with the principle: Me, myself and mine? Therefore, those who have no idea of the essence of religious vows but scan them with a digital machine do not see religious life in its true perspective.

Coming to the vow of chastity by religious men or women, let one thing be made clear. No two-legged human beings should take for granted that priests and nuns are walking angels or mechanised robots. They are human beings. They too have feelings and emotions, desires and anxieties. This was understood more than anyone else by Saint Mother Teresa. When she was alive, she instructed all her sisters to recite every day, at the end of the Eucharist or during their morning devotion, the ‘Prayer for Priests.’ This prayer implores Jesus the High Priest and God the Father to keep them pure, to protect them from all dangers and harmful influences and enable them to do selfless service. I wonder how many lay people who throng to mass and other sacraments to avail of priests’ services ever say a little prayer for their priests!

When I say priests are human beings with feelings and emotions, it does not mean that they should succumb to wayward feelings and desires and conduct themselves as freelancers. That is where prayers, sacrifices and constant vigilance on their part are a must. These again are to be supported by the good wishes and prayers of the praying community of the faithful.

If a priest does not have human feelings, he will not be a successful priest to sit in the confessional and listen to the woes and agonies of those who confess. An unfeeling priest will not be able to invoke God’s healing touch on those who have been unfaithful to their partners or have committed crimes. Bereft of human emotions, a priest would condemn them at least in his heart. But, rather, he feels the pain and anxiety of the repentant sinner and advocates before God for his mercy on the one who has just confessed. As an aside, there was this incident of a young priest who had to hear confessions in the church. After a week of hearing confessions, he emotionally broke down and said to himself: ‘I just cannot believe the immensity of people’s sins. I have no nerve to continue. I call it quit.’ Well, his was an extreme case of a person who had a glorious thinking of the confessional exercise. Hence, he succumbed to his over-wrought emotions.

Church institutions have norms and regulations to deal with cases of aberration by a priest or a religious. If a rotten apple needs to be removed either from a convent or from a presbytery, the authorities have the responsibility to deal with such issues without white-washing or colour-washing them. Then, if there are legal aspects, let the law of the land deal with them. Taking their misdeeds to the streets or jumping into the lap of waiting journalists or media people, who look for the salacious stuff, does not befit a sensible human being.

The recent phenomenon of going public on media or with publications appears to be emotionally charged attempts for publicity and for financial gains. The so-called claim of cleaning the church through laundering others’ outfits, without laundering one’s own, can prove to be a damp squib.