CONVOCATION ADDRESS.

(PVP, VADAVATHOOR SEMINARY, 9th JANUARY, 2012 ).

His Grace the Bishop, President of PVP, Rev. Fr. Rector, Members of Eminent Faculty, Graduating members of the student community, Distinguished Guests, Rev Fathers and Sisters, Ladies and Gentlemen

I deem it an honor and privilege to have been called upon to be present on the solemn occasion of the 38th Convocation ceremony of this majestic institution and to address the distinguished gathering and the graduating students present here this morning. Let me first of all offer my hearty felicitations and best wishes to the happy band of scholars who have not only furnished their minds and their intellect with academic riches garnered from this great seat of learning, but have bravely opted to go out into the wide world clad in Gods armor in order to proclaim the good news and to bear witness to Christ in extremely challenging circumstances. Our hearts go out in admiration and prayer to the youth of today who choose to heed to the call of the divine in preference to the many tantalizing and seductive images that the culture of consumerism and indulgence constantly and unremittingly
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presents to the minds eye. We wish them well because their future ministry will have to confront a society which refuses to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and the material, while setting aside God aside as an illusion- that is an all pervasive temptation that assails the mind of the modern man. Indeed, one may well ask what is the core content of the ministry that this dedicated band of youngsters has prepared themselves to undertake in such hostile territory, in such treacherous sands? To an ordinary layman like me with no initiation into the subtleties of theology or scriptural scholarship, the Christian ministry, particularly the ministry in the parish primarily appears to be two fold- one, holding the family together in Gods love and concern for ones neighbor, without allowing parents and children to be overwhelmed by an obsession with material gains and ostentatious living; and two, protecting children and youth from slipping into the permissive culture of lax morals and loose living. I am not certain that all of you share my perception of what constitutes the challenges for the young priest- but I speak out of my experience of over four decades of dealing with crime and delinquency as a professional and more recently, my active involvement with training of young students in my role as a teacher and counselor of youth in the diocese of Tamarasssery. Briefly put, my conviction is that the challenge of maintaining
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family solidarity and the purity of youth also threatens to constitute the greatest crisis that the Church in Kerala is fated to encounter if the ministry in the parish fails in its mission. Let me explain the rationale for my apprehensions in this matter. The strength and vitality of life in the parish arose from a long and steady tradition of regularity in attendance to Mass at least on Sundays, the conduct of various sacraments in the Church, religious festivals, participation in pious organizations and in recent years in family prayer groups, Sunday catechism and the like. Unfortunately, every such organized activity seems to have undergone definite and perceptible erosion in its piety and its credibility for reasons such as patronage extended by the parish priest to undesirable or anti social individuals purely on the basis of financial support that such people offer or because they wield political influence etc. As regards church attendance itself, even devout and loyal parishioners are often heard complaining that the priest is either ill behaved or ill trained. Sunday catechism is often reduced to a farce because the teachers are unqualified and incompetent. The cumulative impact of such negative perceptions impacts the community life of the parish and drastically reduces the benign influence that the parish priest traditionally exercised. Contacts are maintained with the parish only for fear of ostracization or victimization.

Problems mentioned so far pertain to personal failings or prejudices of individuals among lay people and clergy alike and are capable of being mitigated with change of personnel. Far more fundamental and deep seated are problems pertaining to practices of worship and principles of social action that have been adopted variously in different dioceses and parishes. Sometimes I recall the criticism attributed to a scholar named Alfred Loisy who said that Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, and what came was the Church. There is so much rivalry, recrimination and resentment among various factions within the same rite and among various rites which flourish in this State that we seem to have forgotten the essential meaning of the Kingdom of heaven that Christ preached. If only we remembered the Beatitudes in their purity and their true meaning we should not have been quarrelling among ourselves who are greater or true bearers of the tradition. They should have been a road map for the Church in terms of piety, charity, humility and love. Instead, we seem to have been preoccupied more with power structures and privileges. As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out in a recent book, Christ in fact preached universality, a new family in which the only admission requirement is communion with Jesus. I firmly believe that individual practices cannot be allowed to disrupt the essential unity of this family- but this seems to be easily forgotten.

Yet another disruptive element that has crept into the practice of faith is the cult of the exotic and of whipping up frenzy in prayer and in worship. There are innumerable faith healers among many Christian rites today and there is no dearth of incredulous people who are rushing to hear them. What happens in the process is that instead of the inner transformation that true faith entails, there is a growing tendency to look for miracles in every nook and cornerrecalling what the Holy Father said, in these exercises, Christ is being challenged to establish his credibility by offering evidence to his claims of divinity; a repetition of the first of the three temptations that Matthew and Luke allude to. Young people are carried away by the euphoria and the spectacle that often attend upon these assemblies and look for gratification of such emotional stimulation that passes for piety. One may recall to mind the old saying, in the heart that is not nourished by the vital power of Christ, the Kingdom ends; in the heart that is touched and transformed by it, the kingdom begins. I think the vital power of Christ is vainly sought to be found in the euphoria and the frenzy which is totally divorced from the experience of sacrifice and love. The Christian faith is tragically distorted and young lives are misdirected in this process. Gradually, the young generation which is constantly exposed to the images of glitz and glamour of the world of affluence will tend to follow Nietzsche who condemned the Sermon of the
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Mount as a philosophy of resentment ,a religion for the cowardly and the incompetent who justify themselves by blessing their failure and cursing the successful. Coming to Christian institutions which often seek shelter under minority rights when illegalities are detected, the distortions in the practice of faith are seen manifested in the tone and content of social action which the Church assiduously espouses as a demonstration of the Christian commitment to human dignity and brotherhood. I remember a poignant moment in my official life when a Hindu Judge during Inquiry proceedings in the open court asked me to define the Churchs avowed commitment to charitable work in mission areas and when I recounted the story of the Good Samaritan in the open court to explain who ones neighbor is, namely any one in need, how the Judge was literally moved to tears. The conventional answer to who is meant by neighbor used to be a fellow member of ones people, where everyone shares a sense of solidarity. But the Samaritan was outside the community and had no obligations to solidarity like the priest or the Levite who passed by earlier. But something else overcame him- I remember the Holy Father explaining that the Gospel uses here the word that originally referred to the mothers womb and child birth- the Samaritans heart is wrenched open, as it were, by an overwhelming feeling of compassion. So he himself became a neighbor. But today, can we say this of the affluent
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Catholic parishioner in Kerala? I am afraid not. Even many of the so called Christian institutions are intent upon making profits, regardless of the means employed. The clergy who are put in management of them sometimes live a life of luxury of scandalous proportions. We seem to have given up Christs commitment to the poor. Finally, a word about the disruption of the family in general. Family life is getting fractured every passing day with scores of divorce petitions flooding the diocesan courts and the civil courts- infants are traumatized by the sudden withdrawal of parental care and grow up without any emotional stability. Look at the picture of alcoholism that has become the hall mark of the affluent and the poor catholic alike. If one were to analyze the pattern of economic offences in the State of Kerala, including cheating and breach of trust, the percentage of Christians figuring as accused would be quite revealing .Even in respect of property disputes, Catholic families seem to predominate. There is no need to expand the list further; there is a frightful decline of ordinary morality and rectitude among Catholics and an alarming trend of indiscipline and delinquency among Catholic youth. Along with these tendencies, there is a pronounced absence of concern for the poor and the underprivileged. I once raised the hackles in a Pre Marriage counselling course by asking how many pairs among them would be willing to share their dowry euphemistically called
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patrimony among the less privileged among their contemporaries who cannot enter into matrimony for want of financial resources. Catholic parents who rush for admission of their children in professional colleges demonstrate the same consuming passion for quick financial returns regardless of the natural aptitudes of children and relegating to the background all considerations of the humanizing influences of the Social Sciences and the Humanities. I think I should not prolong the litany of complaints against the community and the clergy in Kerala. But I have attempted to paint a realistic picture of the challenges that are awaiting the young priest at every parish in this State. I believe I have done so with a sense of responsibility and, yes, with a certain degree of despair. I hope and pray that in the coming days, the young clergy who are mandated to carry the message of Christ to the faithful would be able to bring about a transformation in the lives of many and help in establishing the Kingdom of God in all its glory and strength. I sincerely thank the President and the Rector for affording this wonderful opportunity to be with you all today and thank you all for patiently listening to me for so long. May God bless you all. Abraham Kurien, Indian Police Service, Director General of Police (retired) Dated 9th January, 2012 at Kottayam.