Bangalore
Dec 1, 2009
The soft-spoken and mild-mannered Archbishop of Bangalore, Rev Dr Bernard Moras, became an unlikely hero and caught the imagination of Catholics of not just India’s knowledge capital but of the entire Karnataka state and the country but even abroad when he stood up agai nst the states’s BJP chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, home minister Dr V S Archarya and other ministers in 2008 following a series of attacks against churches in the state when he thundered: ``I am prepared to lay down my life for the Church.’’
"How would you have felt if the sanctum sanctorum (garbha gudi) of temples was desecrated and the statues of your gods and goddesses brazenly dismembered?,’’ he had asked when Yeddyurappa, Acharya and several other ministers had called on him after the series of attacks against churches in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Bangalore and other districts in September last year.
The righteous indignation exhibited by the Archbishop took everybody by surprise, when the chief minister and the other BJP leaders, who had sought to justify the attacks carried out by Bajrang Dal and other Sangh Parivar activists by raising the bogey of conversions, offered a boquet of flowers.
"The 68-year-old Archbishop, who personifies hardwork and devotes more than 12 hours to his pastoral and social service obligations on a daily basis, visited the Vatican to participate in the three-day 24th International Conference on the unusual theme of ``Ephphatha!’’ (The Deaf Person in the Life of the Church) from November 19 to 21 by virtue of his position as the Chairman of the Health Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), New Delhi.
the house, where St. Maksymilian was killed
the special primary school for the blind - Rabka
Divine Mercy Shrine - Kraków-Łagiewniki
Niepokalanów - the Basilica II
The meeting of Sisters Superior FSC - Retreat House in Laski
Niepokalanów - the chapel of St. Maksymilian
Jasna Góra - holy mass at the Chapel of Black Madonna 23rd Nov 2009
"Visiting Poland, which is almost a completely Catholic country, and the birth place of our beloved Holy Father John Paul II was one of my cherished dream,’’ remarked the Archbishop, who had visited Rome for a record eleven times besides travelling to several other countries. ``I managed to squeeze in sufficient time to make this happen and am very glad,’’ he said.
Sharing details of the insights that he gained in his 15-day trip abroad to Vatican and Poland, the Archbishop said the Catholics who could afford to should try to visit Poland at least once in their lifetime just as all the faithful make it a point to visit the Holy Land and the places that have played an important part in the public life of Jesus Christ and other historic Biblical landmarks.
"Poland is perhaps the only country in central Europe that is largely Catholic. It has a history or almost a shameful record of persecution and atrocities against Jews and other ethnic non-Germans under Nazi rulers. Imagining the kind of torture and horrors of holocaust itself was a terrible experience,’’ the Archbishop said pointing out that the Catholic forefathers in the Kanara region had suffered an almost similar religious persecution during the Tipu Sultan rule some 225 years ago.
"The Catholics of Kanara region may not have been tortured and exterminated like the Jews in the Nazi concentration camps known as Auschwitz of early 1930s. The holocaust was a nightmare of the last century. But the trauma, travails and sufferings of Mangalorean Catholics in what is regarded as the entire Kanara or coastal region is no less tolerable,’’ the Archbishop said pointing out that he recalled these details during his visit to the Konzentrationslager (KL) Auschwitz at Birkenau, which saw more than a million Jews as well as tens of thousands of Poles, Romanies and Sinti, Soviet prisorners of war and other innocent people brutally murdered.
"The captivity of thousands of Kanara Catholics and their inhuman deportation to Seringapatanam, the present Srirangapatnam, near Mysore like cattle is also a painful experience,’’ the Archbishop said, adding: ``The only thing that I could do was to pray that such senseless, brutal and tragic events never recur.’’
"I met a 90 plus and practically invalid nun, who had almost completely lost her eyesignt and confined to a wheelchair , who had saved a large number of Jewish kids from certain death from the Nazi tormentors. I was simply amazed at her fortitude and touched by the regular visits from a large number of relatives of the survivors from the Holy Land and other parts of the world to pay her homage, ‘’ the Archbishop recalled.
"I was told that several German visitors, especially the younger generation were so remorseful of what the atrocities committed by their forefathers,’’ he said pointing out that, ``These young Germans were spending time and energies in social work and even doing menial works.’’
Another important and most significant aspect of the visit to Poland was to see the widespread popularity of the devotion to Mother Mary in different parts of the country. The world famous pilgrim centre, Jasna Gora (Clarus Mons or Luminous Hill), the sanctuary of the Mother of God, which is also known as the Black Madonna, was another highpoint of the Archbishop’s Poland tour.
"I had the rare privilege of offering mass at the Shrine,’’ the Archbishop said p ointing out that it was one of the biggest Marian shrines. It may be recalled that the then Archbishop of Delhi Allan de Lastic had died at the Jasna Gora shrine during a visit in 2000.
The Archbishop also visited the sanctuary of Divine Mercy at Krakow in Lagiewniki, which was termed by Holy Father John Paul II as the ``capital of the cult of Divine Mercy.’’ It was at this sanctuary that Sister Faustina, who had been canonized recently, lived in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. The Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy dating back to 1935 began here with Sister Faustina believed to have heard the words of Jesus: ``You will prepare the world for my second coming; with your companions, you will entreat my mercy for yourselves and the world.’’
"During my visit to the Papal town of Wadowice, where Pope John Paul II, was born as Karol Wojtyla, I was simply overwhelmed at the humble beginning of our late Holy Father,’’ the Archbishop said pointing out that he also visited the Virgin Mary;s Offertory Basilica and the Church of St Peter the Apostle, both of which are nearby, and closely linked to the childhood and youth of the late Pope. The Shrine of the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, one of the most popular and world famous pilgrim centre, near Wadowice, which is known for the Holy Week celebrations with the Glorious Mystery of the Lord and the Burial and Triumph of Our Lady Celebrations. Christ’s Avenues and Our Lady’s Avenues services held by lay people led by a lay guide are a Kalwarian characteristic feature besides the practice of an Avenues service for the dead.
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