Church walks it to mandir (Hindu temple)

PUNE: The Catholic church will take up the study of Sanskrit, adapt to monastic life in an ashram and adopt the Hindu ritual of aarti during mass if the movement towards 'Indianisation of the church' gets the nod from 400 priests and five bishops congregating in Pune.

Starting Tuesday, Pune's Papal Seminary, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its transfer from Kandy (Sri Lanka) to the city, will play host to the priests for three days.

Discussions will cover the state of the church in India and the movement for its Indianisation.

The Catholic church has already adopted a number of Indian traditions and practices and has come a long way, four decades after the historic Second Vatican Council (1962-65) brought an epochal shift in the modern church through its declaration on religious liberty.

Pune's Papal Seminary, which has ordained over 1,250 priests during the past 50 years, has continued with its modernisation effort along with its associate institutions such as the Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth (JDV), formerly the Pontifical Anthenaeum, and the De Nobili College.

Pune-based Catholic leaders such as Joseph Neuner, Kurien Kunnumpuram, Francis X D'Sa, John Vattanky and Subhash Anand have been stressing for lesser control from the Vatican, to make the church "truly Indian and genuinely Christian".

Francis X D'Sa, an internationally acclaimed Sanskrit scholar has noted in his paper published in 'Dreams and Visions: New Horizons for an Indian Church (2002)':

"Today, the time has come for the Indian church to shed its image of a multinational company and retrieve those characteristics which bring out its ‘Catholicity' in the best sense of the word."

Pandikattu Kuruvilla, teacher of philosophy at JDV and the Papal Seminary's rector, Ornellas Coutinho, explained that a number of Indian religious customs and practices have already been embraced by the Catholic church to become truly Indian.

"A number of Christian priests, for example, strictly follow the ancient Indian ashram system of monastic life, such as those at the Bethany Vedavijnana Peeth (Pune), Satchitananda Ashram (Trichy), Kurusumala Ashram (Kerala) and the Sameskshna Ashram (Kalady, Kerala)," said Kuruvilla.

"Practising vegetarianism, organising satsangs and reading Bhagvad Gita are some of the changes that have taken place," he said.

Definitions of aarti on the Web:

A short prayer or eulogy sung in the reverence of a diety or a Guru. A kind of short religious ceremony in which a prayer is sung and lighted lamps are used to worship a God or a saint.
www.siddhashram.org/glossary.shtml

Worship by singing and chanting aloud the praise of a God or a Goddess.
www.kangrapilgrimage.com/faq.html

Aarti, ãrti, arathi, or ãrati is a Hindu ritual in which light from wicks soaked in ghee (purified butter) or camphor is offered to one or more deities. It may be said to have descended from the Vedic concept of fire rituals, or homa. The word may also refer to the traditional Hindu devotional song that is sung in the ritual of the same name.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarti

I suppose our Catholic brethern will probably tell you they're just following Church tradition handed down by the fathers. ;O)

This isn't the Magisterium of the Catholic Church teaching doctrine here. It's an independent conference at a seminary. This has zero relation to the deposit of faith handed down by the fathers. Thank God.

If the Church were bound by seminary gatherings like this, us Catholics would have long ago been eating Wonder Bread hosts consecrated by Latin American Lesbian communist priests who believe that Jesus was a gay social worker and radical environmentalist.

Historically, the Church acquired some of its doctrine and most of its ritual from non-Christian sources such as Mithraism in the early centuries.

The explanation for this has traditionally been that the practices were sanctified by being brought into the Church, rather than that the Chuuch was corrupted by the introduction of pagan rituals.

If it is entirely right and proper to "sanctify" Greek and Persian pagan practices of 200 to 400 AD by using them in Church ritual, why not Hindu practices of 2005?

Carried too far, of course, this would result in Catholicism becoming only another of the thousands of sects of Hinduism.

Historically, the Church acquired some of its doctrine and most of its ritual from non-Christian sources such as Mithraism in the early centuries.

...and thus our conclusion: In not one instance has Acharya made a convincing case that Christianity borrowed anything from Mithraism. The evidence is either too late, not in line with the conclusions of modern Mithraic scholars, or just plain not there. Acharya will need a lot firmer documentation before any of her claims can be taken seriously.--- (Mighty Mithraic Madness - Did The Mithraic Mysteries Influence Christianity?)

Our knowledge is mostly ingenious guess-work; of the real inner working of Mithraism and the sense in which it was understood by those who professed it at the advent of Christianity, we know nothing. Some apparent similarities exist; but in a number of details it is quite probable that Mithraism was the borrower from Christianity. ... It is not unnatural to suppose that a religion which filled the whole world, should have been copied at least in some details by another religion which was quite popular during the third century. Moreover the resemblances pointed out are superficial and external. --- (Mithraism entry in Catholic Encyclopedia)

In summary, the argument that Mithraism was a source for Christian beliefs or practices falls on three ground. First, there would have been no reason for Christianity to have taken anything from Mithraism. Second, the elements of Mithraism generally put forward as similar to Christianity are either untrue or in-significant. Third, and most deadly, Mithraism actually appears after Christianity.
Did Christianity steal from Mithraism? Most definitely not. --- (What Mithraism Isn't)

Ultimately, all attempts to prove Catholicism "pagan" fail. Catholic doctrines are neither borrowed from the mystery religions nor introduced from pagans after the conversion of Constantine. To make a charge of paganism stick, one must be able to show more than a similarity between something in the Church and something in the non-Christian world. One must be able to demonstrate a legitimate connection between the two, showing clearly that one is a result of the other, and that there is something wrong with the non-Christian item.
In the final analysis, nobody has been able to prove these things regarding a doctrine of the Catholic faith, or even its officially authorized practices. The charge of paganism just doesn’t work. --- (Is Catholicism Pagan?)

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