Om Namah Jesus� Resounds in India's Catholic Churches

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Om Namah Jesus Resounds in India's Catholic Churches

 

Source: http://indiaview.wordpress.com/

 

NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 8, 2008: Om Namah Jesus could well reverberate

inside hundreds of Catholic churches in India very soon, if the

changing physical face of these places of worship is anything to go

by. The Vatican-blessed process of enculturation being implemented by

the 168 Catholic dioceses in India has already seen Jesus acquiring

the form of a Hindu sage, St John the Baptist with a kamandalu,

grottos in the shape of conch shells, and a church in Bangalore that

can easily be mistaken for a temple. Enculturation, broadly speaking,

is the indigenization of the Church through the process of

assimilating local culture and symbols in construction, layout,

interior design, furniture and religious fixtures. So far, around 45

churches across the country have been wholly or partially inculturated.

 

“Initially, there was a lot of opposition to this from conservative

elements in the Church. For them, any dilution of the European element

in church construction, or in the murals depicting scenes from the

Bible where all the people look European, or in statues or church

articles, was totally unacceptable. That has slowly changed with the

growing realization that the Church has to incarnate the Gospel in the

culture in which it is being preached,†a senior priest from the

Archdiocese of Calcutta told Outlook on condition of anonymity.

 

HPI note: Inculturation dates back to the Jesuit Roberto de Nobili who

arrived in Goa in 1605 and proceeded to present himself as some kind

of brahmin priest, complete with sacred thread, white dhoti and hair

tuft. He claimed the three-strand thread represented the Holy Trinity

of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Bede Griffiths continued

this deceptive approach when he came to India in the 1950s, presenting

himself in the orange robes of a Hindu sannyasin or monk, constructing

a church that looked like a temple and performing a mass in the manner

of a puja.