Editorial

The Temptation of Totalization

“The fact of evil threatens all our achievements, including pious ones, insofar as they are expressed through ‘fraudulent totalizations’ of our being,” wrote Paul Ricoeur, who continued, “the true malice of man appears only in the state and in the Church, as institutions of gathering together, of recapitulation, of totalization.” This is clear warning on […]

Why Are They Still Left Out in the Rain?

The Church leadership’s relentless attempts to ensnare eight deacons from the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly in legal disputes, under the guise of enforcing a uniform way of celebrating the Holy Mass, are unprecedented. The controversial 50:50 formula for the Holy Qurbana, quietly introduced during the COVID-19 lockdown, is now being forced upon these deacons. As they […]

Desire in Man is the lack of God

The world we live in is haunted by the only true evil, the absence of God. More tragic is the situation of the Church because of the absence of Christ. Traditionally, evil was defined as privatio boni – the privation of good. It was St Augustine’s genius that produced this definition. Evil is nothing positive, […]

Community Consciousness can be Communal Consciousness

The Syro-Malabar Major Archiepiscopal assembly of 2024 that was convened in Palai diocese for three days discussed three topics. They were: 1. Faith formation, 2. The mission of the laity, and 3. Making the Syro-Malabar Community Consciousness strong. In the Assembly 348 members participated, who were mainly laity, religious, priests representatives and bishops. In the […]

The Ring of Gyges

A man named Gyges is a humble shepherd in the service of the king of Lydia. One day, an earthquake opens a hole in the ground where he’s tending his flock. He descends into it to find, among other strange things, a ring on a dead body, which Gyges takes and puts on. Later, at […]

The Papal Delegate’s Conundrum

Archbishops Cyril Vasil has given an interview in Slovak on his appointment as the Papal Delegate on Unified Holy Qurbana in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archeparchy. It is apparently an exposition of his post as Papal Delegate. He says that his role as Papal Delegate gives “me moral authority and does not authorize me to perform administrative […]

Facing the People and Use of the Vernacular

The last chapter of Romano Guardini’s The Spirit of Liturgy is titled “The Primacy of The Logos Before Ethos.” He affirmed, “What ultimately matters is not activity, but development. The roots of and the perfection of everything lie, not in time, but in eternity. Finally, not the moral, but the metaphysical conception of the world […]

New Risks of Infection

The Tin Drum, a novel by Guenter Grass, is about the Nazi past of Germany, which brought more destruction than creation: In it we read of twenty-three deaths as against three births in war time. Through this novel Gunter Grass succeeded in making the German society confront their past. An injury that causes dwarfism in […]

Hindus call off rally through Christian villages in eastern India

Dayal among three awarded for promoting religious freedom, civil liberties