There has been hardly any coverage of Mumbai’s Oswald Cardinal Gracias recently appointed head of a committee appointed by Pope Francis to review the relevance of its diplomatic offices. Even less has been space and time given to the section of Goa’s Archbishop Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao as president of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC), also recently.
Some in the media based in Mumbai and Panjim did cover these two important postings, as did the excellent Catholic vehicles UCAN, Matters India and the younger, Indian Catholics Matters.
Even Christians, other than those attending Catholic Churches in the three Rites - the majority Latin, the powerful Syro-Malabar, and the Syro-Malankara - would now little of three momentous developments that have taken place in recent times, which will have a major impact on the faith.
Pope Francis, as part of his rejuvenation of the Catholic church, organised a two-year Synod of the Family, a deep-look survey of issues that face modern families, which in many places are shifting from traditional joint families to nodal, very urban ones. Marriages, sexuality, and issues of teenagers and the role of the church have been assessed from the grassroots.
For the record, many countries, including India, have not done it for all citizens. How the church looks at small families, the money world of the teens despite the stimuli, and the examining of the family exposure to all that the digital revolution brings, are complex issues and will shape pastoral care in future.
The second Synod is on Synodality or Walking Together. All of last year, small parishes, big dioceses and national conclaves have discussed how Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Nuns and common people can find their voice in the Church’s and work collectively.
In the perception, people have of the Catholic Church as a chain of orders and commands from the Pope through the hierarchy of the Clergy to the common people, this collective thinking will come as a surprise.
Even for many Catholics, who thought they existed in a system of “Pray, Obey, Pay", it was a surprise that they could voice issues they had, difficulties they faced, the occasional friction, or actual humiliation they may have faced at the hands of the parish priest.
Someone could call it the glasnost moment.
For Oswald Cardinal Gracias, the long serving archbishop of Mumbai, high office is something he is often called upon to hold. [That is how the title goes, Christian name first, rank second, and surname last]. He is currently the most senior of the five Indian Cardinals who are members of the electoral college which chooses new Pope by secret paper ballot.
He has been president of the FABC more than once. And he has all been president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, the umbrella organisation of the church in the country. But he is internationally best known as one of the Group of Eight cardinals who advise the Pope on various matters.
Cardinal Gracias is now named Co-ordinator of the Study Group that will evaluate the functioning and role of Papal Representatives in the Church worldwide. The Study Group will make suggestions to improve their functioning. Other members are from the Pope’s Secretariat of State, and the department in the Vatican that oversees the 5,600 bishops across the world.
The Pope is head of state of the tiny Vatican ensconced in Italy’s capital Rome, and in that capacity has ambassadors, called Papal Nuncios, in most major countries. But as the Pope is also the head of a denomination, the Nuncios also represent him in relations with local bishops. Nuncios travel widely in the countries of their jurisdiction and meet just about every bishop and senior priest around. Their feedback is critical when Rome appoints a new bishop. Or sacks a bishop found wanting in moral standards dipping his hand in the collection bag.
Pope Francis is said to have personally identified several items that need specialised study. The Vatican communique clarified that some of the topics were chosen by the Holy Father himself. The Gracias committee report would be important in future governance of the worldwide Catholic denomination.
In Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, who is the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, his unanimous election as the president of the Asian Bishops is important for the continuing evolution of the church in this region - which has Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims in large numbers in several large and small countries.
Within India, the 71-year-old Cardinal has chaired the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), the national episcopal body of the Latin Church, since 2019. The two acronyms CBCI and CCBI tend to confuse even lay Catholics. The CBCI is an umbrella collective of the three Rites of Catholicism in India.
One Rite is the global Latin Church, which traces its roots in India to the coming of clergy with the Portuguese and other European nations some 500 years ago and covers the faithful in all parts of the country. The two other Rites, both originating in Kerala, are the Syro-Malabar Catholics and the Syro-Malankara Catholics, which differ in their liturgical roots, and trace their origins two thousand years past. They now have dioceses in many States, as also in Europe, North America and Australia.
Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao, the third Indian to hold this office, has on his plate action on the Bangkok Document, produced after the Covid pandemic, which highlights some priorities for the Churches of Asia in today's context.
(John Dayal is an author,
Editor, occasional
documentary film maker
and activist.)