Can you outsource God?
– Saritha Rai writes for the GlobalPost, where this article first appeared. –
It is dawn in Kerala, a palm frond of a state in India’s South West. As the sun’s first rays hit the church steeple, a Holy Mass is being conducted in the local Malayalam language.
Only, the prayer is dedicated to a newborn by his Catholic family half a world away in the United States.
Requests for these so-called Mass Intentions, or prayers offered for a specific reason, pour into India from the United States, Canada and Europe, where there is a huge shortage of priests.
This outsourcing to faraway India is a quaint practice that has been called “religious outsourcing.”
But now, the severe global economic crisis and bankruptcies in Western churches are hitting even this unusual practice. In Kerala and other parts of India, where the Roman Catholic Church still thrives, outsourced mass intentions are dwindling and striking the income of poorer priests and impoverished churches.
Sebastian Adayanthrath, bishop of Kerala’s Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, one of the oldest in the country, said he is observing a big slowdown in incoming requests for mass intentions from the West.
from FaithWorld:
Ex-nun urges Indian Catholic Church reform in tell-all book
A Roman Catholic nun who left her convent in India after 33 years of service has penned an unflattering picture of life within the cloistered walls in a book that may further embarrass the Church.
In "Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun", published in India in English this month, Sister Jesme tells of sexual relations between some priests and nuns, homosexuality in the convent and discrimination and corruption in Catholic institutions...
"Amen" grabbed media headlines in February, when it was first published in Malayalam -- the regional language of Kerala. With the new English edition and offers of a film based on the book, Sister Jesme's plea for a reformation of the Church is now set to reach a wider audience.
How thin a line between Church and State?
Catholic churchgoers in Kerala will soon receive, in addition to the communion, an appeal to not vote for atheists.
The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has issued a pastoral letter to be read out in Catholic churches from Sunday, urging parishioners to vote for those who uphold secularism and fight terrorism, according to a report in the Indian Express paper.
The church is also keen that people vote for politicians who will fight against euthanasia and abortion, a direct response to the Left-ruled state’s law reforms commission, which favours legalising euthanasia and floating a public trust to run church properties.
The communists have long been at loggerheads with the Catholic church on matters related to religion and education, including how church-run educational institutions — mostly profitable — should be run.
Kerala’s Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, an association of Catholic bishops, went one step further, reportedly calling the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party the “lesser evil” to the state’s Marxists.
Critics of the church say it has no business meddling in affairs of the state — or telling people whom they should vote for — and that the issue is really about money and diverting attention from its own troubles.
Supporters of the church — and the outspoken cardinal — say Christians in India are under attack and it is only fair that the church look out for itself and its people.
Religion should not dictate Politics. Religion is nothing but a discipline and should be a path of living. Going to a religious institute like Church/Mosque/Temple.. should bring in an inner peace rather than a agitating and provoke thought of hatred violence. If every religion condemns hatred and killing..why is that people who go to the religious institute still live around with the feeling of hatred. This is very simple the minds of people are corrupted with hatred and really makes no difference if you go or don’t go to any religious institutions.
Good Article. Do you know one thing you can Outsource your child home Homework Also. – Dan