Media Release

Bengaluru, Jun 11: Catholic leaders have instructed the prime minister’s office to consult leaders of all religions before union and state governments make radical decisions and impose rules on opening places of worship.

Religious practices differ widely between faiths and sometimes even within different sects and rites of religions. Also, the number of minority religions such as Christianity, differ in various districts and blocks of the country, many of which have not been as severely impacted as metropolitan cities. The harsh regulations imposed may be entirely unnecessary in most rural areas and small towns, and possibly also impractical.

These points emerged in the first Webinar organized by the century-old All India Catholic Union (AICU) to focus on issues that arose for the faithful in the almost three months of coronavirus-induced lockdown. The worries on health, the imposed isolation and the loss of physical contact with loved ones have created psychological, psychosomatic and spiritual challenges for the people which need to be addressed on an urgent basis.

The Webinar was inaugurated by Cardinal Oswald Gracias, member of Pope Francis’s consultative group and leader of the Catholic church in India, and attended by Bengaluru Archbishop Pete Machado, who is the spiritual advisor to the Catholic union, Allan Brooks, spokesman of the church in North East India and Mumbai social work expert Vibhuti Patel, apart from AICU national president, Lancy D Cunha and members of the union.

A C Michael moderated the webinar and AICU vice-president, Elias Vaz expressed the union’s gratitude to the participants and the audience.

Cardinal Gracias said that the church had implicitly followed the government's guidelines in the lockdown.

It had contributed greatly to extending Medicare, relief and other assistance to the people impacted by unemployment, hunger and homelessness. Many churches run institutions had been converted to COVID care wards, refugee centers and food distribution points. Bishops, clergy, nuns and volunteers were closely involved in relief and distress amelioration operations at all levels, down to small towns and villages. Special mention was made of the migrant crisis, the biggest humanitarian crisis of these times apart from the spread of the disease and the growing fatalities. The church and the community were at the forefront of all aspects of the amelioration of the hardships of the migrant workers and their families. Food, medical attention and in many cases for those travelling to Jharkhand, all forms of transport were arranged free of cost.

The Cardinal said it had been impressed upon the Prime Minister’s office that the Holy Eucharist, known commonly as Holy Communion, was at the very core of the Christian faith. For Catholics, the bread and wine were the body and blood of Christ. People had been deprived for many months from partaking in this communion. It cannot be done on television or using information technology.

The church is committed to taking all measures needed to prevent the spread of the disease and for personal hygiene. But it must be left to the local bishop, priest and laity to decide the detailed systems management. The Catholic Bishops Conference, and other denominations, had given detailed guidelines to their clergy and laity in this regard.

The two bishops and lay leaders stressed in the webinar that the tribulations of the poor seen in news telecasts and on innovative social media by human rights activists had aroused deep empathy in the community, which had always been alive to the problems of its neighbours.

The webinar also discussed issues arising out of the long closure of schools and the possible loss that students would suffer. It was even more critical for those from economically weak communities, who did not have laptops or smartphones, and for those in regions where the internet and even electricity were erratic. Bishops have assured that children who have had to relocate because of the pandemic and the migration, will be given admission in Catholic schools to the maximum possible extent.

But it was clear that the corona pandemic has forced us to think afresh on teaching in the new age.

The silence of the pandemic had also made the corona community alive to issues of human rights, constitutional values and civil liberties. The church is an important part of the civil society, involved not just in reaching to people that are out of coverage of government programmes, but in helping build a strong spirit of citizenship.

AICU president, Lancy D Cunha stressed the role of the laity, as a partner of the institutional church, in nation-building in the post-COVID era.