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I would like to begin this letter by congratulating you for the excellent July 15—31st issue of Light and Truth which was largely devoted to the persecution and eventual death of Fr Stan Swamy S.J. Your Editorial too was equally impressive.In this letter, I would like to highlight how the government machinery tried and succeeded to suppress the voice of this fearless man and through him the cries for justice of the poor and exploited people of Chhattisgarh. A few elements of the judicial establishment, knowingly or otherwise became party to this persecution, abetted by some police personnel at different levels.. How many times the members of the higher judiciary have initiated su motto proceedings against governments for misuse of laws, especially against individuals. I think Fr Stan’s was a fit case for the higher judiciary to intervene to meet the ends of justice. Well, it did not happen and I do not know why.The Indian Constitution has provisions to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of all people, even non citizens. Fr Stan and his colleagues worked within the framework of the Constitution. Yet trumped up charges were levelled against them by those who were oath bound to protect even those citizens who struggle for justice and the rule of law. One consoling aspect of this entire episode was that Fr Stan was rarely accused of conversion activities.So far I have only touched upon the insensit
“Many things...can wait. The child cannot... To him (her) we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow’, His (her) name is Today” - Gabriela MistralWe live through trying times. The hapless poor in India have been bearing the brunt of the lockdown – undernourished, unemployed, impoverished, debt-ridden – languishing in penury and despair. The rich and the influential merrily commit irresponsible social, economic and political offences, accelerating the pace of the spread of the virus.Worse still, our households are being infected with an even more lethal virus. It has been permeating our fragile society, that has fast been losing its moorings, sapping its vitals. Thanks to the plummeting of our value system, and the consequential tenuous support mechanism, suicides (homicides?) in the name of dowry have become a daily event, too many, as the real Covid-19 deaths.Charged media discussions skip the fundamental issue of all-pervading degeneration of our age-old values. They focus only on the illegality of the hydra-headed dowry that assumes ingenious forms to penetrate through invisible routes, like the virus that mutates its features to infect protected humans.Desperately, we go on enacting more stringent laws, even as we lose battles, and the war, beating funeral marches to the grave. An inverse correlation between the stringency of our laws, and their efficacy! Despite our frustrations, the fight should contin
In Kerala, Islamophobia among Christian community has increased in the recent years. Unprecedented animosity is slowly boiling between the two communities that were living in amity for several centuries. Several social and religious issues have developed between the communities in the recent past like chopping off the hand of P.J. Joseph, a college professor, by the Islamic extremists; preaching by some Salafi scholars against the Biblical revelations; and the marrying of Christian girls by Muslim boys with pretended love (popularly known as love Jihad) to mention a few.However, the present rift is not merely reduced to religious differences, but stretches to socio-political as well.Some political issues blown up disproportionately are not really locally relevant but are international such as conversion of Hagia Sofia into a mosque; religious violence against Christians in some African countries; and the recent tussle between Israel and Palestinian Hamas.Lastly, a court verdict (apparently favouring Christian community) on the issue of scholarships for minority students as well as reservation for economically weaker sections has fractured the friendship further.It is only with a sense of shock and turbulence can we perceive this growing unrest between the two religious communities that claim their ancestral lineage to the biblical figure Abraham. The tensions have slowly been developing to a level which at
St Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits at a critical time in church history: disobedience to the pope’s authority was widespread in 16th century Europe. This is why Ignatius was adamant that the distinguishing mark of his company would be obedience. He placed his order at the service of popes so that Jesuits would go wherever sent on a mission. In fact, in the 1930s, Pope Pius XI would wryly remark: “You have to be a pope to appreciate the value of the Jesuits.” And largely because of the overwhelming influence of the Jesuits in the training of both clergy and laity in the post-Tridentine Church (1563-1965), obedience became the hallmark of Catholics everywhere. To tell the truth, though, often obedience was indistinguishable from conformity. I have sometimes said that Catholics are not Protestants. Catholics rarely protest, dissent, disagree or challenge publicly. If they do, they are often called to order by their own ecclesiastical superiors. The watchwords are “Be prudent, be cautious.” After all, the Protestant Reformation took place because of the public dissent of certain Christian scholars — men like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Erasmus. They questioned church authorities over the interpretation of Scripture and the corruption of certain church practices. In other words, they protested. Because of this, Protestants were called “heretics” and penalized for erroneous belief. But the obedience of
It was a scene which will forever be etched in the memory of millions the world over: on May 25 2020, on a street in Minneapolis, US a white police officer Derek Chauvin, had his knee pressed down on the neck of a black American George Floyd. This continued for more than nine minutes. An excruciating bystander video(which immediately went viral the world over)shows Floyd gasping and repeatedly begging, “I can’t breathe” and onlookers yelling at Chauvin to stop; the officer did not relent till Floyd slowly went silent and limp. The widely watched footage sparked worldwide protests: of anger, anguish and agony. People from all walks of life came out (including some Indian celebrities), social media went berserk; there was just one spontaneous, unanimous and loud cry, “get off our necks, we want to breath!”. On 20 April this year, Chauvin was found guilty of murder (and is likely to face a long prison sentence) in a verdict which brought a sigh of relief to many! The ‘George Floyd’ tragedy is painfully unfolding in India today. Not one George, but millions of Indians, who today are deep in anguish, gripped in agony and seething with anger. The vast majority of them are ordinary citizens – many of them from poor and vulnerable sections of society. They are crying about a system that has completely broken down: of those who are affected by the pandemic : thousands are dying, many in major cities throughout the
