Cardinal Dias' country, India, has as the national anthem of its secular Republic a religious poem written by a monotheistically-minded pagan, Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Right after India's independence was proclaimed, the "Jana Gana Mana" was declared its national anthem, the only song which would not be offensive to Muslims (and to Christians), as it is a song of praise not to a deified nation, but to the "Dispenser of the fate of India", God.When honest Christian Indians sing this anthem, they have one Lord in mind, the Lord of History, Jesus Christ. But the greatest problem of the Church in India in the past few decades is that there are very few honest Catholics left, especially in positions of leadership. Instead of using the common Indian spirituality and notion of the Divinity -- as missionaries did since the age of Saint Paul in the Areopagus and Saint Thomas in the Malabar Coast -- to bring pagans to the knowledge of the one and only Lord, to the one and only true Dispenser of the Destiny of all nations, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church in India, its dioceses, and its seminaries, have become cesspools of theological darkness and of paganized rituals. It is a Church which refuses to propagate the Faith and instead paganizes the Christian faithful.
As one of our commentators remarked regarding Cardinal Castrillón's letter to Cardinal Dias: the disgusting and deleterious situation of paganized seminaries in India and throughout Asia and Africa should be the cause of greatest concern! In a Church which has become diluted in the great Indian "spiritual melting pot", the alarming testimonies of the irresolute seminarians ought to be closely examined. "Separatist Traditionalist tendencies", while themselves problematic, do not seem so alarming when compared to a Church which seems to have left Christendom behind in search of Pantheism.
The propagation of the Faith is impossible with clerics who light candles to Ganesh, with priests and theologians who have been left untouched by the great proclamation that Jesus is Lord, Dominus Iesus (an old article on this very grave matter by Sandro Magister is available here -- in Italian only)
A few days before Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos sent his curious letter to Cardinal Dias of Bombay regarding the return of diocesan seminarians from a FSSPX-SSPX seminary, the catechesis of the Holy Father for the General Audience had been on the Magnificat, the last one of the series begun by Pope John Paul in 2001.
Though following the theme proposed by his predecessor, this beautiful catechesis was purely his own, filled with the deepest etymological formulations and eschatological conclusions:
In the original Greek of Luke's Gospel, we have seven aorist verbs that indicate the same number of actions which the Lord carries out repeatedly in history: "He has shown strength... he has scattered the proud... he has put down the mighty... he has exalted those of low degree... he has filled the hungry with good things... the rich he has sent empty away... he has helped... Israel".
In these seven divine acts, the "style" that inspires the behaviour of the Lord of history stands out: he takes the part of the lowly. His plan is one that is often hidden beneath the opaque context of human events that see "the proud, the mighty and the rich" triumph.
Yet his secret strength is destined in the end to be revealed, to show who God's true favourites are: "Those who fear him", faithful to his words: "those of low degree", "the hungry", "his servant Israel"; in other words, the community of the People of God who, like Mary, consist of people who are "poor", pure and simple of heart. It is that "little flock" which is told not to fear, for the Lord has been pleased to give it his Kingdom (cf. Lk 12: 32). And this Canticle invites us to join the tiny flock and the true members of the People of God in purity andsimplicity of heart, in God's love.
May we remain in Your tiny flock and be true members of Your Body, Lord of History, through the prayers of the Mother of God and of Saint Francis Xavier, Apostle of the East!
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As Saint John, the beloved disciple, left the cauldron of boiling oil prepared for his martyrdom next to the Latin Gate (Porta Latina) unscathed and healthier than before, may the Lord grant strength to His Church through her current ordeals.
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As Saint John, the beloved disciple, left the cauldron of boiling oil prepared for his martyrdom next to the Latin Gate (Porta Latina) unscathed and healthier than before, may the Lord grant strength to His Church through her current ordeals.
