A time for humility
It is a time for crisis in the Catholic Church, what with the se
abuse scandal staying in the news on a continual basis. Given
the logic of the media today, when the dominant news outfits
of the globe zoom in on a story — specially one involving sex and
power — there’s little chance that they would give up on it without
digging up every possible angle.
In part, the competitive sensationalism of the media can be
blamed for the continual focus on this issue. In these ‘clash of
civilisation’ times, there is also an immense ability to misunderstand
someone whose culture is somewhat different. Celibacy has been
blamed by some, on the assumption that this must be responsible
for the string of sex-abuse cases being reported. If this is the
case, it does not explain why similar scandal was not visible
earlier, or simply not reported.
Yet, the pain is obvious among the many faithful who make
up the Church, and who have both faith in its teachings as well
as high expectations of the institution. Likewise, there are so
many men of the cloth who have to needlessly go through the
embarassment, though they — together with the other religions,
specially nuns — have spent long committed years in the service
of religion and society. Life is such today that a single nun writing
a litany of complaints about life in the Church makes it to the
bestsellers list, while the tough, arduous and committed years of
thousands of others find no place for mention.
Incidentally, figures say India, with its 18.6 million Catholics,
is the 16th largest Catholic nation in the world. It has more seminarians
— 14,120 — than any other nation and nearly 5,000 more
than second-ranked Brazil.
From the reporting in the media, it would appear that stray
statements, which fit into stereotypes about what it means to be
Catholic, are highlighted with more eagerness than more rational
discourse on the issue. Likewise, elements with a communal
mindset seem to be gaining a perverse pleasure in dwelling on
the discomfort of the Church in embarassing times, which is
indeed unfortunate.
Times like these are a reminder of how human our institutions
are, and how we are prone to fail. It reminds us that humans will
err… like humans. It also is a reminder of the responsibility we
all — not just people in authority — have to ensure that institutions
and its members work like they are supposed to.
The Church has some hard decisions to take, to once again reiterate
its good intentions in overcoming a crisis that a small
number of its elders have brought upon it.
Investigating journalism
The International Centre Goa, American Centre Mumbai and
the Goa Union of Journalists are to hold a seminar on investigative
journalism at Dona Paula on Wednesday. Everyone
— at least among the readers — wants an active and responsive
press; but how many are willing to contribute actively to actually
make this happen? The last decade or two has seen Indian journalism
grow phenomenally in size, even as newspaper prices have remained stagnant,
or even declined, because of predatory competition in the field.
Governments across the globe are more than eager to pander
to the media, provided the latter does not stray beyond a certain
point to upset the apple-cart of the rulers of the day. Even the
Americans, who would like us to believe they have the most free
press on the planet, are willing to go in for dubious concepts like
’embedded journalism’ when their perceived national interests
are at stake in conflicts in the Gulf or elsewhere.
Some headline-creating stories, packaged as ‘investigations’,
have only involved skeletons falling out of cupboards due to
rivalries of various kinds — political, industrial, or in Goa, even by
beach-party organisers.
Indeed, we need a responsible media, one which keeps the
interest of the citizen at its heart. But “watchdog journalism” or
“accountability reporting” doesn’t come cheap, and it will take
much more than seminars to build this up to acceptable levels.
