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| Sunday, 1 August 2004 |
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Catholic church and conversions by W. T. A. Leslie Fernando The Catholic Church vehemently opposes the draft legislation on unethical conversions despite so many Catholics being lured by the Fundamental Christian sects by offering money and other material inducements.
However having studied the draft legislation against unethical conversions the Catholic Church finds that they would infringe freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, free choice of religion and propagation of it. The Church envisages that the clauses in them would fetter genuine social and charitable activities of the Church. The Church emphasises that it is a fundamental right enjoyed all over the world to convert people by missionary activity. Unethical When there is no accusation against the Catholic Church on unethical conversions its position in the larger interest of the religion and its missionary activity should be appreciated. In accordance with the modern thinking of the Catholic Church it has no reason to resort to unethical practices as in the past. For that matter even conversions by genuine methods called Evangelisation has lost its former significance. In the past it was the Catholic belief that Christianity was the only revealed and true religion and all other religions were pagan and heathen. Accordingly the Catholic Church adopted a policy to convert people to Christianity at any cost. They adopted both fair and foul means for the purpose. It is a fact that doubtful means, favours, privileges, preferment, social and educational benefits etc. have been employed to gain converts. (Fr. W. L. A. Don Peter - Studies in Buddhism, page 78). The Vatican Council II (1962-65) reversed the attitude of the Catholic Church towards other religions. It declared "The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in other religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and life, those rules and teachings which though differing in many particulars from what she holds and set forth, nevertheless often reflects a ray of that Truth, which enlightened all men". It further affirmed - "They contain treasures a bountiful God has distributed among the nations of the earth but the Church has to illumine these measures with the light of the Gospel". According to this interpretation even enlightened doctrines of other religions have emanated from God. Now the position of the Catholic Church is that those of other faiths or no faith also can be saved if they live righteously according to their conscience. ("50 questions about Catholicism" - page 135, published by St. Pauls Mumbai, India - 1998). Salvation If non-Christians and atheists could attain salvation by leading a righteous life are we not creating difficulties to them by converting them to Christianity? We would be imposing added burdens on them like attending compulsory Mass on Sundays and days of obligation, going to confessions and host of other duties and commitments the Catholics are bound to perform. On the other hand in keeping with Christ's instructions to his disciples "Go out to the whole world; proclaim Good News to all creation" (Mark 15:15) from its inception Catholic Church has engaged in spreading the faith. The missionary activity had been carried out at a great cost for the purpose of evangelisation. Even today the Church is looking for ways and means for evangelisation in Asia as the Catholic faith is not so prevalent in the region. Beneficial In the present context it would be a moot point whether evangelisation would be beneficial to Asia. Although people in the West are far advanced in science and technology, they are not serious about religion. In Europe most of the people are nominal Christians. In Catholic countries only 10% seem to practice the religion and churches are empty even on Sundays. Most of the people who attend the Church are the elderly. In Asia the situation is different. Spirituality is ingrained in the lives of people. Although attending the Temple is not compulsory for Buddhists and Hindus as in the case of Christians, people attend them on their own. In Asia, religion is practised earnestly than in Christian Europe. In the West religion is commercialised. In some countries specially in USA Catholic priests are paid for religious duties. The clergy lead luxurious lives far different from what Christ enjoyed them. Most of them lead sensuous lives. Morality is at a very low ebb in the West. Although Christianity insist on monogamous marriage and prohibit divorce you get more divorces in Christian West than in Asia. In Europe married couples living in adultery is not taken seriously. The moral standards in the West have come down to such a low level, that even in some Catholic countries you get swimming pools where men and women step to them fully naked. In Asia though the major religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam do not prohibit divorce, they are still less than in Europe. Adultery is shunned and looked down upon. As a result there is more stability in family life. All the modern vices like terrorism, gun culture, drug addiction child abuse, homosexuality, lesbianism, promiscuous sexuality and free sex have come to our country from West where they are so rampant. In Catholic Italy which has produced the majority of Saints and Popes you get drug trafficking and a murderous mafia organisation is operating there. In these circumstances, if Asia were to be converted to Christianity there would be breakdown of morals, divorces would increase, children would go astray deadly diseases like AIDS would spread fast and family ties would be shattered. It would do more harm than good in Asia. Before evangelising Asia most of the Catholic institutions should be converted to Christianity. Devices In Sri Lanka too there are some Catholic priests who have formed their own organisations with foreign funds adopting subtle devices to get round the Buddhists. Some of them used to carry pictures of Christ in one hand and that of Lord Buddha in the other advocating that Buddhism and Christianity which are poles apart as parallel religions. There are other Catholic priests who get Buddhist Bhikkus to preach Bana in Churches, place statues of Buddha, erect pandals, and illuminate lanterns in churches for Vesak. One such priest has stated thus to a Sunday Sinhala journal - "In ten years time people would not be divided as Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Hindus. All could go to Sri Maha Bodhi, Nallur Temple, Tewatte Church and meditate. Spirituality would take the place of religions". This sounds a hidden agenda. Although the Christians in the West do not practice the religion they lavishly send funds to spread Christianity in the third world countries. In the past Westerners ruled our country by power of the gun. Now they make use of globalisation, multi-national companies, NGO's cultural invasion and also Christianity to have a hold on us. It is stated in our Constitution that it is the duty of the State to protect and foster Buddha Sasana. Today there are unethical conversions, conspiracies, under-currants and hidden agendas to dislocate Buddhist religion in our country. In this situation some sort of legislation is necessary to safeguard Buddhism while ensuring legitimate activities of other religions (The writer is a former High Court Judge) Conversions Thanks to our media we are able to follow the present debate on this subject. Being a regular reader of the print media and a contributor to the pages of the local press for a very long time, I have been a silent participant of this on-going debate. However, the recent testimonies in one of the local morning papers, one by a convert to Christianity and the other by a convert to Buddhism, and also the statement signed by the mainline churches have prompted me to enter this controversial debate. May I begin with two stories to make my initial point? Both stories come from India. The first one concerns Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru's Home Minister in the first cabinet, Vallabhai Sardar Patel. Patel taking part in the debate on the new Indian Constitution concerning the freedom to practise one's religion in a secular state, speaking from the floor of the house of the Constituent Assembly stated, that his reading of the gospels is such that no Christian can be a disciple without sharing with others the gospel message. Patel was a Hindu. The second story concerns Bishop Lessley Newbegin one time Bishop of the Church of South India. Newbegin after a visit to the former Soviet Union said that the church is alive in Russia despite the prohibition to preach. Both these stories make the point that the task of conversion belongs to God. God picks and chooses his instruments. Therefore, I will not panic about the proposed bill on the subject of conversions, nor will the Governments attitude upset me because those in parliament are trying to gain political mileage, using this subject. However, it is sad that what began with the former Minister Maheswaren trying to do in Sri Lanka what Chief Minister, Jayalalitha had achieved in Tamil Nadu now being taken over by the JHU and the PA government. In fact recently Tamil Nadu has withdrawn the law. Although we live in the global village, we in Sri Lanka are a broken community and this legislation will divide us more and earn a bad name for us in the midst of global realities. Moreover this proposed legislation is like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning. We in Sri Lanka, to my mind have more important economic and political problems to handle. I do not think conversions are a problem for most of our people. As a Christian I am also sad that the recent statement made public had been signed only by the leaders of the Roman Catholic, Church of Ceylon and NCC Churches. There are others outside these structures. Why haven't they signed these documents, very specially the organized Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka? I hope and pray that my intervention through this letter will enlighten the on-going debate. - Sydney Knight |
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All these days there have been anxiety among the Catholics about the
activities of the Fundamental Christian sects and the authorities of the
church too have expressed concern over the issue. Some sort of measure to
prohibit unethical conversions would have benefitted the Catholic Church
as well.
