Indian Catholics, both lay people and religious, have welcomed Pope Francis ushering in equality and fraternity in religious congregations that have priests and brothers as members. “It is not a small technical or legal change but a profound shift with enormous theological and spiritual implications,” Delhi-based Jesuit moral theologian Father Stanislaus Alla told on May 19, a day after the Pope promulgated a rescript that offers dispensation from a Church law that stipulates that only priests could head such religious congregations.
The Pope’s move, the Jesuit theologian adds, “distinguishes the power of ordination and the ability to lead and govern and recognizes them as different spiritual gifts. Put simply, it overcomes discrimination in religious life and serves as a great equalizer,” explains the priest who teaches in Delhi’s Vidyajyoti College of Theo-logy.
For Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, the rescript is “a much awaited reform” and “a sign of equality and true fraternity” that his congregation has been requesting the Vatican for long.
Father Mathew’s congregation has both priests and brothers and the new change gives lay brothers “equal responsibility in religious congregations. It will also put an end to clerical domination. Fraternity now will go beyond words to action. Synodality speaks of walking together. Until now, brothers have been left behind.”
Chhotebhai, convener of Indian Christian Forum, a laity group, sees “a natural progression that non-clerics (Brothers) be accepted as major superiors of men’s religious orders.”
The lay leader recalls the Montfort Brothers getting per-mission from the Vatican in 1990s to ordain some of their members as priests to minister to their community. In another development, the Conference of Religious India elected Christian Brother Philip Pinto as its president, a post until reserved for priests. “Now an Apostolic Carmel sister is the CRI President,” he points out.
Salesian Brother P.A. Jose welcomes the papal gesture as “an overdue change.” The historic decision “will help us Salesians live and work together really as brothers sharing Salesian life as equals,” he told.