14 minute read
COVER STORY
by CNEWA
Qui utem a et es velia coribus del ipsam culliatios nestiur, conecte pla ex eos ere si consequosam et laut ad
New rules in India may halt these important works of the churches, “which is like burning the house to smoke out the rat.”
Kochi. Her 33-year-old daughter, Elsmi, has been a resident at this home for women with physical and intellectual challenges for the past 20 years.
“I had three daughters — two of them were born with severe autism. One of them died a few years back. The other is Elsmi and she’s here,” Elsie says, wiping away tears as she speaks of her family. “My eldest daughter is married, but her 11-yearold son also suffers with a disability.”
Elsie is a daily wage worker. Her husband is retired.
“It is impossible to look after Elsmi at home because of her challenges,” she says. “When she was at home, she’d keep running away. She’s doing much better at Sneha Sadan.”
The Preshitharam Sisters also administer Sneha Sadan; Sister Stella Maria is its superior.
“We house girls, ages 9 to 50,” she says. “After that, they move on to our senior care facilities. The women we have here are severely physically and mentally challenged. Most are autistic, have Down syndrome or hyperactivity disorder. They are unable to understand or make sense of anything,” she says. At any given time, Sneha Sadan takes on 25 residents.
Sneha Sadan, which is served by four sisters and two support staff, is primarily funded by CNEWA.
Sister Stella Maria says she is worried about the new rules for foreign aid that have come in.
“I hope this doesn’t make things difficult for us,” she says. “We also get donations from parishioners and sometimes parents of our residents give us whatever they can,” the nun adds, but most of the women at the home come from poor families.
Although most of the residents are Christian, the facility cares for girls and women of other faiths, too, such as those from Hindu and Muslim families.
“I believe it was my calling to work in homes like these,” Sister Stella Maria says. “I have a sort of
Two sisters serve lunch to residents at Sneha Sadan, a home for women with physical and intellectual challenges under the age of 50.
sixth sense when it comes to the women I look after. That is God’s gift to me, a miracle,” she says.
Serving her faith and community for 21 years, Sister Stella Maria tells of an incident that occurred in the early hours of the morning. While she was sleeping soundly, she had a feeling one of the women had come to some harm. She woke up and walked into the room to find one of them had actually fallen off her bed and was in pain.
“I can’t explain it really. All I can say is that this is the way I serve Jesus. I know and trust he is working through me,” she says.
Kumari Babu’s 29-year-old daughter, Parvathy, was born premature and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Kumari works for her village panchayat, or village council, which ensures her 100 days of employment every year. She is a widow.
“I have two other children whom I look after and support,” Kumari says. “Parvathy’s been at Sneha Sadan for 16 years now. The way our society is, people don’t like having mentally and physically challenged women around.” Kumari visits her daughter once a month.
Women such as 33-year-old Jo Mol Johny depend on facilities, such as Sneha Sadan, to have a decent life. Jo Mol, who has been a resident at Sneha Sadan for the past two years, was sexually abused by a neighbor when she was 15; it has scarred her since. Her phobia began with a fear of snakes, which she imagined were everywhere. Then it got progressively worse, until she started fearing people.
“I question God sometimes why this had to happen to my family,” says her father, Johny P.D. “But what can be done? We take whatever God gives. We are fortunate she’s in a safe place like Sneha Sadan, where she’s being looked after well.”
Sister Stella Maria says all the residents attend the nearby government-run school for people with special needs.
“We accompany them there,” she says. “When they get back, we have other activities for them, such as listening to music or we take them on a walk outside.”
Other times, when there is a birthday, wedding or baptism in the parish, food is sent over to the home where the residents enjoy the feast.
“The kindness of parishioners means a lot to us. It adds value to the life of the residents here,” Sister Stella Maria says.
One of the girls who enjoys these feasts is 14-year-old Malavika S. Nair. Her father, Saju Kumar, visits with her. She showers him with kisses and is very affectionate. But Malavika can only communicate through sounds. The lack of amniotic fluid while her mother was pregnant meant Malavika was born with developmental challenges. She was also diagnosed with epilepsy as a child. Saju is himself epileptic and life at home is difficult.
“My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and has had chemotherapy and radiation therapy. She’s recovering from that,” he says. As a waiter in a hotel, “I can’t work all hours any more since things at home are difficult. We also have a son, who’s younger than Malavika.”
He visits Malavika once every two months or so.
“We can’t look after her at home,” he says. “When she gets angry, she starts to bite herself,” pointing to deep bite marks on her wrists and arms.
“But she has a routine here along with the other girls,” he says. “And she’s happy.” n
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anubha George is a former BBC editor. She’s a columnist and writer for various publications. She’s based in Kerala, India.
Catholicism: The One and the Many
By Elias D. Mallon, S.A., Ph.D.
M.Erumquam unt facculpa sitam ariae plitiae est et pelendanda In Iraq: Farida Pols Matte, 80, sits with other Christians in a church in Ankawa, about 45 miles east of their hometown, Qaraqosh, which they fled after it was seized and destroyed by ISIS in August 2014.
Editors’ note: For 95 years, CNEWA has worked hand in hand with the Eastern churches, Catholic and Orthodox, in their native lands and cultures. Part of CNEWA’s mission is to educate Catholics in the West about their sister churches in the East. To accomplish this mission, CNEWA is initiating a series, entitled “People, Look East.” In this opening piece, we will treat the notion of a church sui juris and the salvific role of these churches within the universal church.
Ten years ago, in January 2011, the Middle East changed unexpectedly, suddenly and perhaps forever. Just months prior, in October, the Holy See held a Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops to address the difficulties facing Christians there. For synod members, the Middle East was a challenging place. However, at the time it was a relatively known and stable, if fragile, entity.
Less than three months later, the so-called Arab Spring had begun, sparked by the death of Tunisian street vendor Mohamad Bouazizi, who had set himself on fire in protest of having been abused by Tunisian authorities. Antigovernment demonstrations erupted all over the Middle East. Within six months three national governments had fallen and a civil war had begun in Syria. In this context the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) emerged. It proclaimed itself to be the Islamic Caliphate in June 2014, with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph. A persecution was unleashed against Christians and other religious minorities, the likes of which has not be seen since the Mongol invasion of the 13th century.
This attack on Christians catapulted some ancient yet littleknown churches into the headlines and into the Western consciousness. Many Latin-rite Catholics heard for the first time about the Eastern Christian communities, including the Assyrian Church of the East, the Armenian, Chaldean, Maronite, Melkite, and Syriac Catholic and Orthodox churches.
In addition to the increased media attention on these persecuted Christians, the subsequent huge migration of peoples brought an entirely new level of awareness. Latin-rite Catholics in Western Europe, North and South America and Australia suddenly had Christian neighbors in large number who were quite different. Their new neighbors had different customs, celebrated the sacraments differently — and many were quite insistent of their Catholic identity. In addition, Latin-rite Catholics were almost totally unprepared for the wives and children of the married Eastern Catholic priests, who came to minister to these newly arrived faithful.
Both before and after this recent migration, the Eastern churches have often been regarded in one of two ways: either as treasure houses of exotic art, liturgy and customs, or in terms of their relationship to the bishop of Rome, the pope. Worse yet, Eastern Christians in the United States in the 19th century — most of them from Central or Eastern Europe and members of the various churches of the Byzantine tradition — were looked upon at times with downright suspicion and hostility.
While there may be some justification for these two tendencies, both fail to recognize these churches as living, active agents of evangelization. These churches have salvific value and continue to be instruments of Christ in the world. Furthermore, while their relationship to the bishop of Rome is significant, to focus exclusively on this aspect is reductionist and, hence, theologically inadequate.
Although most Roman Catholics are only peripherally aware of it, the universal Catholic Church comprises 24 churches — one of which, the largest, is the Roman Catholic Church. The other 23 are self-governing Eastern churches, defined as “sui juris,” meaning “of one’s own right.” This Latin juridical term is used in both civil and canon law to describe a person who is not under any legal disability or subject to the authority of another person. They are fully capable of managing their own affairs and can act on their own behalf.
While “sui juris” is in no way a biblical term, these little-known juridical entities have exceedingly important theological significance. Their existence and flourishing also have crucial implications for the universal church and its credibility as an authentic witness as the Body of Christ. In sum, these churches are a legitimate and authentic response to the resurrection and mission of Christ in ways that have yet to be recognized fully and appreciated in the West, although worthy attempts have been made.
Multiple documents of the Holy See, published between 1894 and 2012, have played a major role in helping Catholics understand the Eastern churches. Three will be highlighted here. In this 116-year period, several important events occurred both within the Catholic Church and in the world to impact directly and indirectly the understanding and appreciation of the Eastern Catholic churches.
In India: Shipla Joy provides physical therapy to youth at the Home of Peace, a center run by the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy for children with disabilities.
In the 20th century, the church saw a significant development in its ecclesiology, expressed in the dogmatic and pastoral constitutions of the Second Vatican Council — “Lumen Gentium” (1964) and “Gaudium et Spes” (1965) respectively. “Lumen Gentium” describes the church primarily, though not exclusively, as “a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The church is the people of God on pilgrimage to fulfillment in God. The biblical and charismatic aspects of the church, previously less emphasized, were put on a level with the juridical. While the council did not deny by any means that the church is a juridical entity, it did insist that it was not primarily juridical.
Relations with the Eastern Catholic churches previously were also heavily weighted with juridical concepts and language. In the document of the Holy See on the Eastern Catholic churches, “Orientalium Dignitas” (1894), Pope Leo XIII states that the Roman church “rejoices in (the Eastern churches’) faithful obedience.” A sign of the catholicity of the church, he writes, is “the sight of differing forms of ceremonies and noble examples of the tongues of the ancient past … rendering their submission to the church.”
Along with these mentions of “obedience” and “submission,” Leo is genuinely concerned about protecting the “integrity proper to the discipline of the Eastern churches” and removing “reasons for rivalry and suspicion.” A great deal of the letter details how the integrity of the Eastern Catholic churches is to be protected against encroachments from overzealous clergy of the Latin rite.
With Vatican II, the Catholic Church enters into dialogue with those Eastern churches not in full communion with it, known as the
Orthodox churches, and an interesting evolution takes place in these documents. The respect that the ecumenical dialogue among the churches at this time engendered could not but influence the attitude toward the Eastern Catholic churches, expressed in the very important conciliar decree on the Eastern Catholic churches, “Orientalium Ecclesiarum” (1964).
At the outset, the decree declares: “The Holy Catholic Church … is made up of the faithful who are organically united in the Holy Spirit by the same faith, the same sacrament, and the same government, who, combining together into various groups which are held together by a hierarchy, form separate churches or rites.”
It states that these churches are “of equal dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others as regards rite and they enjoy the same rights and are under the same obligations.” This description of the Eastern Catholic churches as being of “equal dignity” is extremely significant and marks a major shift away from the notions of “obedience” and “submission” put forth by Pope Leo XIII.
However, reading the decree almost 60 years later, there is a noticeable awkwardness in the text. Since the Eastern Catholic churches are full and equal members of the Catholic Church, Vatican II was as much an ecumenical council of these churches as of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet, throughout the decree, the Eastern Catholic churches are referred to in the third person. If the Eastern Catholic churches in the decree are “they/them,” a question arises: Who are the “we/us” of the decree? Nevertheless, “Orientalium Ecclesiarum” is in many ways, a “bridge” document, encouraging the churches to move on to new and deeper levels of appreciation and respect.
In Egypt: The Rev. Boulos Nassif (right) teaches in the Better Life program he founded in Minya for children with hearing difficulties. Opposite, students in a classroom of the Franciscan Sisters’ School in Beni Suef.
Movements in the world at large also influenced the universal church in its response to the challenge Pope John XXIII had presented at the start of the council: to “read the signs of the times.” The 20th century saw the dismantling and discrediting of imperialism and colonialism. Once the accepted modus operandi of the times — between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak — was rejected, attempts were made to install more just political systems in the world.
At the same time, great strides were made in recognizing the rights and values of indigenous peoples and minorities. While these movements may not have impacted the church’s ecclesiology directly, they effected a change of atmosphere — in the church and globally — that discouraged arrogance, unilateralism and triumphalism, and encouraged greater respect for the other.
In this atmosphere, it was both essential and desirable for the church to go beyond the juridical sui juris status of these minority Eastern Catholic churches, to acknowledge their history and to recognize their role in the mission of salvation as inspired and authentic “incarnations” of the Gospel message within the multitude of cultures throughout the world.
After the Resurrection, Christianity moved beyond the Roman province of Judea. Already at the crossroads between Europe, Asia and Africa, the followers of Jesus spread to all three continents within a generation of the first Easter. Communities of believers — whether Jewish, Gentile or mixed — began to appear in the major cities of the Roman Empire and of the Parthian Empire (247 B.C.-224 A.D.), which extended to China in the east.
Each of these faith communities arose in a particular place, time, language and culture, forming local churches. Their formation epitomized the “incarnation” central to the Christian faith that Pope John Paul II speaks about in his apostolic letter on the Eastern churches, “Orientale Lumen” (1995). The eternal Word of God became incarnate in a concrete and specific time and place — Second Temple, Roman-occupied Palestine — in a specific culture — Second Temple Judaism, possibly Pharisaism — speaking a specific Semitic language — Hebrew or an Aramaic dialect — along with everything that this historical and cultural context
