Children of the Church
Those guilty of such heinous crimes must be brought to justice in regular, criminal courts writes DR. OSCAR REBELLO
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The other day I was accosted by a colleague. “So, Oscar, ” he said “Which children are all your perverted padris molesting today?” The operative word was all.
My ears turned crimson red and my blood pressure jumped precipitously. A malicious, ugly provocation that left me dumbstruck. Hence, I decided to rethink the dreadful sex abuse scandal ripping through the Catholic Church in the USA and Europe.
There are three angles though which this complex prism can be viewed.
First: Let’s assess the accused, confirmed predatory, perverted paedophile priests. Every crime can be condoned. But betraying the trust of a child under your care, to me, is the most horrific of crimes. It is right up there in the pantheon of capital crimes – Rape, Murder, Paedophilia, Treason. By no stretch of imagination should these cockroaches ever be forgiven or forgotten, and must be hunted down to the ends of the earth to be brought to justice in regular, criminal courts. No arguments.
Second: What was the role of the Church authorities? What is upsetting everyone and providing sufficient fodder to detractors of the Catholic Church, is the massive cover-up of these crimes by bishops and deacons, perhaps going right up to Pope Benedict XVI himself. Many even want to prosecute them for being abettors to the crime. Others believe that it is this cover- up that goes on to be a dagger thrust into the very heart of the Church. I think this can be viewed more rationally.
On the part of the Church authorities, the cover-up scandal is a gigantic error of judgment. Any number of statistics can be bandied about sex abuse cases in other religious orders or silly arguments equating homosexuality with paedophilia. The point of the matter remains that this small band of paedophile priests were allowed to go scot- free and worse, remain potential explosive devices that would blow up in the Church’s face at a later date, which they eventually did.
Consider this: If as a head of family, I was to see my younger sibling molest the maid, would I have as easily reported the matter to the cops or would I have tried to downplay the incident to save my family honour? I have no easy answers to that question. So, human mistakes do get made and they are not always done with malicious intent. Therefore the apology and penance appears sincere.
Third: The thousands and thousands of Catholic priests and nuns who remain faceless and unacknowledged, but who carry aloft the blazing flame of Christ’s teachings in all its spectacular glory.
The reason why this ancient religion continues to inspire generations is, because of the timeless wisdom and wonderful living example of its biggest superstar Jesus Christ.
So every time you encounter a Fr. Valerian or a Fr Valmiki works tirelessly for the differently- abled children, you meet Christ. When you encounter Sr. Johanna tender lovingly to invalid elderly folk abandoned by their successful children, you realize the Church is alive and kicking. When you bump into Fr. Maverick building a bulwark against the Ecocide of Goa, when you see the sizzle and passion of Fr. Eremito leading his men and women to the next agitation; when Fr. Avil or Fr Michael educated his people on mining hazards; When Fr. Felipe Neri shepherds his flock and genuinely tries to bridge the divide between religions in Goa; when you see those humble disciples of Mother Theresa cleaning out maggots from a wound with a song in their hearts and smile on their lips, you are awestruck by the throbbing energy, the enormous force of good and genuine sense of worship and service that the Catholic Church symbolizes and truly epitomises.
Of course, even in Goa, we have a handful of our priests hobnobbing with certified criminal politicians and many who sell off land kept under their guardianship. But I’m confident that the laity and the church hierarchy will rectify those ills in due course of time.
I admit I have my constant run-ins and arguments with my priest friends on many teachings of the Church that I strongly disagree with. But that they are doing a phenomenal service to the people of Goa selflessly, courageously and uncomplainingly is beyond the pale of doubt.
Guilt by association may be a criminal juris prudence term and maybe the entire Catholic Church is prepared to carry the cross of their fallen comrades who indulged in criminal acts. But to nail the entire church to the cross because of the sins of a few, is to my mind excessive and thoroughly reprehensible.
The mood of the moment was best captured in my conversation with my parents the other day. Both are devout Catholics as opposed to their wayward son.
I asked my dad; Papa, how does this whole sex abuse scandal affect the credibility of the
Church”?
Every once in a decade, my sweet tempered father glares at me admonishingly. So, he glared at me and replied ‘The sex abuse scandal is for pseudo- intellectuals like you to dissect, bisect, analyse, paralyse; criticize and downsize.
“For us, our love, dependence and trust in our God, our faith and our Church remains unshakeable. Whatever the odds!!” When he’s in a mood like that, I can never win an argument with my old man.
POST SCRIPT
The most extreme and frightening word for me in English is the word ALL. Think about this: When a few misguided Muslim men set off bombs, how often don’t we say ALL Muslims are terrorists?
When a few Devnagri protagonists disparage Romi Konkanni, how often don’t we say ALL Devnagri lovers are bigots and hate Romi Konkanni?
When a few Hindu god men get involved in sleaze and fraud, how often don’t we conclude that ALL Hindu saints are charlatans?
In life, as they say, it doesn’t matter WHO is right or wrong, we’d be better off identifying WHAT is right or wrong.
And oh yes: by the way; Are ALL politicians abominable? The jury is out on that one.
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Singapore Sojourn
By S. Kashyap
Watching Aamir Khan in the TV jingle promoting India with the famous slogan “Atithi Devo Bhava,” (treat your guest like God), I recalled my visit to Singapore six years back. My brother- in- law, posted in Singapore, invited us to visit him. I tried to learn as much as possible about Singapore and its lifestyle. With the information acquired, my family and I discussed our appropriate behaviour in Singapore when my wife said I would need to curtail spitting on the road which might land me into trouble there, triumphantly confirming that she was also well read about Singapore!
Excited, on 23rd May 2004, we boarded an Indian Airlines flight. After a two-and-a half- hour flight, we landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport. At the immigration counter, I realized the true meaning of “Atithi Devo Bhava,” Singapore style. The young and busy girl at the counter took less than three minutes to stamp our visa. Within that time she complemented my wife my son and exchanged information. Then she smiled and said “welcome to Singapore and have a pleasant stay”. It was the first of the many “cultural” shocks I was to suffer.
We soon hired a taxi and the taxi driver was using GPS to track our location. As soon as we reached our destination a credit card was used to pay the fare. “Welcome to Singapore” my brother- in-law repeated with a mischievous smile, looking at my astonished face.
During our ten day stay we toured the entire City State,(approximately the size of Goa), although in natural beauty and bounty, Goa ahead. But hats off to Singapore for showcasing whatever little they have in an immaculate and orderly style. It is no wonder then than Singapore attracts more tourists than does India. Care was taken to see that tourists are never inconvenienced at any of the tourist spots. There were no touts to fleece the tourists. The local bureaucrats at all the places always had a smiling face and were eager to help the tourists.
Once we were at a zebra crossing waiting for the huge bus to pass. Suddenly the driver stopped the huge bus at the zebra crossing signalling us to cross the road first. By the time we crossed the road there was a queue of cars behind the bus without the blaring of a single horn. In all the first world countries this particular right of pedestrians is taken for granted. I shudder to think how a Singaporean would cross a street in Goa. There are no conductors to collect fares in the public transport buses. The driver of the bus always wished us every time we boarded the bus. Their public toilets were better than our five star toilets. Sometimes I had to really pinch myself to know that whatever we were experiencing was real and not some fantasy!
Being close to equator, there are thundershowers almost every day in Singapore. As habits die hard, I used to tell my in-laws to keep candles ready in case of power failures and we used to have a big laugh because in the last 40 years there has not been a single power failure in Singapore! Unbelievable but true! Because it rains everyday, the authorities have planted a lawn on every open space.
On the flip side, this affluence is fast making Singapore loose its heritage, tradition, ethnicity and culture. Coming from India, a cultural superpower, it was indeed painful to see this transformation and unabashed aping of the west. Perhaps there is a lesson for us with our rapid growth.
Returning home after ten days where the smug faced, inefficient and unapologetic immigration officer took almost an hour to clear our baggage, we were frustrated. In India this unchanged attitude has made me wonder whether the slogan “Atithi Devo Bhava” has remained just that …. A slogan!
