The Challenge to the Church in Goa: Revivalism or Renewal? Fr Desmond de Sousa CSsR desmonddeso...@hotmail.com
Society in Goa is passing through an unprecedented metamorphosis akin to a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Like other institutions in society, the Church in Goa is convulsed by the need for radical change to fulfill her mission in society. The Goa Church Synod (February 2002) articulated the direction of renewal. But has the renewal lost out to revivalism? A question of whose perspective Was colonization of Goa by the Portugese (1510-1961) an asset or a liability for the Church in Goa? The native Americans protested the 500th anniversary of Columbus' "discovery" of America (1992) that established the faith in the American continent. They perceived colonization as an unmitigated disaster. Actually, from their perspective, they "discovered" the explorer on their beaches. He thought he had reached India. In return for their naïve hospitality, they received plunder, rape and near extinction. A question of whose perspective! The 500th anniversary of the Portugese colonization of Goa (2010) and the establishment the Latin Catholic Church was celebrated without much fanfare. From whose perspective was it perceived? The Portugese colonizers transplanted the same imperialist, triumphalist, Christendom model of the Church from Europe to Goa. The burgeoning faith of the new converts was saddled with sophisticated Roman Canon law, the imported, emotionally-charged, southern European, popular devotions and novenas to the saints and an elaborated belief system expressed in abstract, Greek philosophical categories. As one foreign missionary priest after many years in India and seeing the number of Goan priests and bishops all over the entire sub-continent and beyond remarked, "Those Portugese kicked the faith into you Goans. They did a good job all the same." Over the centuries, the faith of the converts made them like little Davids, burden with Goliath's mighty armour. Instead of their faith blossoming from the soil of their deep Hindu religio-cultural heritage that is still very much alive today, and in solidarity with their non-converted Hindu brothers and sisters in Goa, they were transformed into aggressive, arrogant "colonials", alienated from their brothers and sisters of other faiths and infected with the "holier-than-thou" attitude of the colonizers. Catholic Goans are much more comfortable in the West than in Goa. Whether the content of faith and the operating model of the Church brought by the colonizers is an asset or a liability today, is a question of whose perspective one listens to in the Church. Continuity or discontinuity with the past? Since the renewal process of the Church initiated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), many serious efforts to break with the colonial past have been attempted. But studies show that the greatest blocks to genuine renewal are the traditionalism of the clergy and the lethargy of the laity. Both these blocks are consequences of their colonial past. The clergy generally find it extremely difficult to accept a more participative, co-responsible and socially committed Church with the laity. This is understandable, since the "older" model of the Church and the content of faith has produced a Blessed Joseph Vaz (1651-1711), a Venerable Fr Agnelo D'Souza (1869-1927), both totally indigenous priests and many eminent clergymen. Both by tradition and training, they are deeply attached to the pyramidal model of the Church, with its rituals, traditions, devotions and practices, which is the only one they know. The laity however, are deeply divided about the pace and direction of change that renewal demands. A paradigm shift in faith formation is needed. They need a more inductive reflection on the daily realities of life to discover the challenge of God acting within these realities, rather than the traditional deductive process of learning abstract truths of faith by heart. Their faith, befitting their minority status in Goa (about 25% of 1.6 million), demands an appreciation of the "seeds of God's Word" present in other faiths, so that they grow in understanding and respect for them. Further "Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world as a constitutive dimension of faith" (Synod on Justice in the World, 1971), is largely absent. Some of the more enlightened laity support and participate in the renewal process as a genuine and necessary expression of the Catholic Church in Goa. But the vast majority are caught up in the revivalist spiritual awakening that is sweeping Goa. Initiated by the Catholic Charismatic Movement (CCR) more than twenty-five years ago, revivalism is fuelled by the retreats at Potta in Kerala. Revivalism or Renewal Revivalism is a highly emotional, anti-intellectual movement of Christian faith deeply influenced by American Protestant Pentecostalism. It stresses a profound, emotional, religious conversion experience and an "other-worldly" attitude that basically ignores any faith-based social commitment. The spirituality underpinning the Social Doctrine of the Church is neglected because it demands involvement in what is considered, a "sinful world." While the present Church leadership is committed to renewal, the vast majority of laity and a growing number of young priests are committed to revivalism. They emphasize strongly emotional prayer sessions, whole night vigils and clamor for miraculous healings from self-appointed "healers." There is very little intellectual content to their faith and practically no social commitment or respect and appreciation for other faiths. The real danger is that while the leadership of the Church and the enlightened section of the laity move towards a better understanding of the pace and direction of renewal, the vast majority of the laity are moving the opposite way, from revivalism to fundamentalism. There is a proliferation of fundamentalist "believers" groups and an eruption of believers sects formed around charismatic lay preachers, who claim to be directly appointed, like the Apostle Paul, by God. They have no scriptural or theological training and refuse to be accountable to anyone in the Church. The budding crisis in the Church in Goa is a moment of danger and opportunity. The danger is the fragmentation within and disintegration of the Church which will be gradually reduced to irrelevance in genuinely continuing Christ's life-giving mission to the world. The opportunity is to transform an ancient, creaking, largely irrelevant European model of the Church into a genuinely vibrant, inculturated Goan Church, rather than a European Church in Goa. Will the Church in Goa continue to operate as a decrepit, colonial Church or become transformed into a vibrant, indigenous Church? Renewal of the Church or Revivalism in the Church -- that is the question. The caliber of the Church's leadership will be severely tested by the question of whose perspective will ultimately triumph!