Fr. P. A. Chacko S.J.

The other day I met a young budding law student in Palakad. He told me that he was one of the six law students being partly groomed by the Church authorities.
My advice to him was that the Church is an institution to give shape to the vision and mission of Jesus. That Jesus who walked in the midst of ordinary people, who heard their agonies and reached out to them. In that perspective, the Church should be an outward looking entity seeing, hearing and listening to people in their life and struggle.
The moment the church becomes a self polishing avatar, it loses its salty taste.
What Pope Francis says about the Church should be well heeded. That the Church should be an empathetic entity, a church that feels with the people in their anxieties and anomalous situations and engenders hope in them. A Church that walks with the people rather than looking for comforts and conveniences.
From that point of view, a Christian lawyer , whether groomed by the Church or not, should have primary responsibility towards the people. Defending Church properties or finance-related issues could very well be taken care of by any well paid and high flying lawyer. Whereas, a normal Christian lawyer will have enough and more of people’s live wire issues to deal with, such as social justice, human rights, accident compensation cases, family related matters and such human issues.
Today we need community- minded lawyers, not communal- minded. Community-minded lawyers, whose outlook is the human community, not the community which remains huddled within the thick walls of caste, class or creed.
When the world is divided into the developed north and the developing south, into rich and politically controlling corporates and subaltern and powerless masses, it is a challenge for judicial officers to activate their conscience for affirmative action. There are honest and praiseworthy legal luminaries who have lived up to the voice of their conscience in order to act judiciously and empathetically to the litigations of people caught entangled in an unjust society.
The poor and economically weak often get stuck in the cobwebbed judicial corridors. That is where justice and rights-conscious lawyers reach out, while many others recoil and remain confined to their world of financial gain.
India needs human rights lawyers and judges, and justice minded judicial officers who will not curry favour with political parties and leaders. Men and women, who will not dance according to the whims and dictates of the moneyed and unholy elements.
They can be of any community. Caste and colour should not sway them. It is consoling to note that there are quite many Christian priests and nuns as lawyers who have taken to the legal word not as a profession but as a service to fellow human beings. They can be called humanitarian lawyers who may not be eager to take up Church related litigations, but want to reach out to do varieties of legal service. Such services are legal aid, transmission of legal information through digital channels, literature, publication of books, legal counselling etc. There are immense opportunities even outside the world of direct professional service.
Let the world of humanitarian legal fraternity flourish!