The best announcement of the Good News in the East is the life witness of Religious, says Syro Malankara Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios of Trivandrum.
“In India nothing attracts more powerfully, nothing is admired more sincerely, than the life of renunciation,” said the 76-year-old prelate while opening the national assembly of the Conference of Religious of India (CRI) Jan. 4 in the southern city of Kochi.
Some 400 major superiors, which CRI officials claim is a record number, attended the six-day assembly on the theme “Consecrated Life and its Role in the Church and in the World.”
CRI is the national association of the 503 major superiors of the country´s 261 religious congregations that together have more than 100,000 members.
“Knowledge, brilliance, human accomplishments all fade out before an authentic life of sacrifice, prayer and humble service,” said Archbishop Gregorios, a member of the indigenous Order of the Imitation of Christ.
He urged participants to bring about a “spiritual revival of Christianity” in India, where Hindu holy men “explore the divine mystery and express it both in the limitless riches of myth and the accurately-defined insight of philosophy.”
Despite its two millennia in India, Archbishop Gregorios noted, Christianity has failed to contribute significantly to the country´s spiritual growth.
The archbishop observed that a life of faith has become risky amid “fast-spreading moral degeneration,” and religious life “doubly risky … like walking on the edge of a Himalayan cliff.”
“A sure guide in this context,” he added, “is the teaching and shepherding authority of the Church.”
Archbishop Gregorios lamented that dissent and confrontation has now become “a way of life,” and this “suicidal tendency” is also seen among Religious.
He said “unbridled liberty” threatens domestic and religious life, which has “perhaps been unreasonably over-protected through excessive structuralism.”
The prelate specifically warned the assembly to take serious note of the onslaught of cable television in the country, calling for vigilance and self- discipline to check “the worst forms of perversions” the satellite media brings into “the sanctuary of homes.”
He urged Religious to avoid “all ambiguity in the use of media” and to take bold initiatives to promote social and moral values.
Addressing the assembly Jan 6., Archbishop Giorgio Zur, apostolic pronuncio to India and Nepal, urged Religious to make their lifestyle and institutions really a “transparent witness” to their ideals.
“We need houses, we need higher learning, we need modern instruments; but everybody realizes that Religious live personally a life of simplicity.”
He said Religious should begin their “particular affectionate concern” for the poor with Christians, and grant them preferential admission to Church institutions.
He wants Religious to go to poor Catholic villagers with parish schools and extend their service to dioceses with limited resources and personnel.
CRI president Christian Brother Philip Pinto alerted the assembly that they are living in a time of transition and the “greatest crisis is the inability to view things differently.”
The assembly discussed the revitalization of CRI to make it more responsive to national and social issues. A three-year reorganization plan to achieve this goal was approved.
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