I beg to disagree with the good Father. Indisputably, the Church has been
run in the past by the intellectuals, who turned God's word into
undecipherable "theology" and doctrine, which they used to shut out the
laity from true participation in the Church. Hence the recent swing towards
revivalism, is a natural thirst of the people for the living word of God
rather than being subject to" intellectual" dissertations and treatises like
we have been in the past. In fact, even the present Pope has successfully
obliterated the easy to understand and use language of the Mass and taken
it back to the ponderous and obsolete structure of the distant past.
What the Church needs perhaps, is to inculcate integrity in its workings and
fundamentals. Whether it is a "inculturated" or "European colonial" or
"revivalist" or "renewed" Church, there is not much difference and it really
does not matter if it does not have integrity and humility. For example, the
Church in Goa, is still silent on its various misdemeanours like selling of
land etc. How can the Church have any moral authority if it does not openly
and humbly apologise for the past and admit its human failings. Merely
expecting the world from the laity and imposing burdens on them, does not
help, even if the Church's top leadership has "changed its direction", but
only intellectually, and not emotionally from the heart.
Diana Pinto
Fr Desmond de Sousa CSsR wrote
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.
