A state court in south-western India has ruled that lay Catholics may sue their local diocese over its refusal to offer Mass and other forms of prayer and worship in the local language of Konkani.
The High Court in the state of Karnataka decreed May 26 that civil courts have jurisdiction to hear the case, in which the plaintiffs are demanding that at least one Mass on Sun-day and other feast days be offered in Konkani, a language spoken by roughly two million people along India’s western coast.
Konkani is one of 22 languages recognized in the Indian constitution, and is the official language of the state of Goa. The lawsuit is being brought by four lay Catholics in the city of Chikkamagaluru, loca-ted in Karnataka, against the Diocese of Chikkamagaluru.
The diocese had opposed the suit, arguing that such matters should be governed by the Catholic church’s own internal Code of Canon Law. It insisted that the plaintiffs have not been barred from worship, but that they cannot insist on praying in any particular language and that the use of a language in worship is a ritual question rather than a matter of civil rights.
The high court, however, determined that civil courts in India have the authority to hear complaints alleging violations of the fundamental rights secured by Articles 25 and 26 of the Indian constitution.
The Karnataka High Court found, however, that the issue of conducting prayers in the Konkani language in a church under the control of the Diocese of Chikkamagaluru cannot be regarded simply as a matter of ritual, that the archdiocese is bound by the law of the land, and therefore that the civil justice system may hear the case.
“The Church desires that all should know the Good News of Jesus. If we need to reach the non-Christians with this Good News, we have to use the local language. Only then will everyone understand the teachings. The church should become a ‘local Church,’ in the sense that whichever state we are in, the state language should take prominence.”