Posted on 10/27/2005 11:50:06 AM PDT by emiller
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 (Pune):
A gathering of leading Catholic clergymen from all over India have asked the Vatican to endorse their proposal to include Hindu rituals in the church.
The Pune Papal seminary said priests from all over India were unanimous that the Catholic clergy must incorporate Hindu practices like performing aarti during mass, studying Sanskrit and the Vedas, and experiencing ashram life.
The Catholic Church's Indianisation process began in the mid 1960s, when a revolutionary council introduced local traditions and practices like mass in regional languages.
Four decades later, the Catholic Church feels there is a need to give that process a fresh emphasis.
"The Catholic Church plans to adopt a number of Indian traditions and practices, which will give us a feel of being an Indian," said Father Ornellas Coutinho, Rector, Pune Papal Seminary.
Countering arguments
After producing four cardinals, 69 bishops and over 11,000 priests during the past 50 years, the Catholic Church in India is now stressing for lesser control from the Vatican to make it truly Indian and genuinely Christian.
The priests say one of the reasons for making these changes official is to neutrailise the arguments of the Hindu right-wingers, who often charge the church with forcible conversions and negating Indian traditions.
"It would definitely put a check on the so-called fundamentalists who keep blaming us for conversions," said Father Lionell Mascarenhas, a priest.
The final word now rests with the Vatican, and if the initiative gets the nod, it may well redefine the practices of the Church in India.
To this priest I say, the Unitarian Church awaits you with open arms; now begone!
Fer cryin' out loud, somebody needs to crack down, but fast.
ping
Wafers to be replaced by pappadums.
They're going to assimilaite JC into the Pantheon.
There are always strings involved, but the Vatican realizes it is better to get in front of something like this.
Adoption of indigenous practices will continue, with out without Vatican approval, so why not approve, and verify?
Hate to say it, but many Hindu's have already done that.
Why? The recent synod was very favorable toward inculturation, within certain limits.
A now-dead Brit Catholic monk named Bede Griffiths spent decades in India and wrote some interesting books about the contrasts and similarities between Hinduism and Christianity. He did blend ceremonies at his "ashram." I know this is a difficult concept for people, but his books, available on Amazon, bear reading. He's a wonderful writer.
"Fer cryin' out loud, somebody needs to crack down, but fast."
- Why is this so outlandish? The Romans adapted many of Mithraism's rituals and practices into Christianity when it formed the Roman Catholic Church, in effect making Christianity an easier pill to swallow for the masses.
LOL! Just because Christmas and Easter are on the dates that they are?
Good to hear that the Vatican is open to this move. I'm sort of a Christian Hindu.....the Hindu rituals include incense, chants in Sanscrit not entirely different from the Gregorian in Latin, supplied my need for such things when the Church gave them up. Much more to this, of course, but just the externals were enough to get me into the door.
In fact, having quit the Church after college, and having NEVER believed that Jesus ever actually lived in spite of K-college Catholic schools, the only thing that reawakened my interest in Christianity was a meeting with a Hindu guru a friend dragged me to kicking and screaming.
He was such a spiritual powerhouse, the first words that came into my mind when I met him were: "If he's this good, maybe there was a Jesus."
Have you read any of Bede Griffiths books? A Brit Catholic monk who spent decades in India. I saw a video of him and was quite impressed with his holiness. I'm ordering some of his books from Amazon
Such a stupid idea ... they could call it the Moronite Ritual Mass...
"LOL! Just because Christmas and Easter are on the dates that they are?"
- No reason to laugh. Read about Mithraism and Zoroastrianism, both religion pre-date Christianity yet strikingly share many of the same beliefs, rituals and stories. However, to answer your question, the date Christmas and Easter fall on are neither coincidences nor the actual time corresponding to the religious occurrence Chriatians celebrate them for. In other words, Jesus was not born on Dec. 25th. As for Easter or Christ’s resurrection, it’s a little more complicated.
- Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was variously celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by Emperor Constantine. It issued the Easter Rule which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. However, a caveat must be introduced here. The "full moon" in the rule is the ecclesiastical full moon, which is defined as the fourteenth day of a tabular lunation, where day 1 corresponds to the ecclesiastical New Moon. It does not always occur on the same date as the astronomical full moon. The ecclesiastical "vernal equinox" is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.
There was a movement in Bengal in the 1890's to make some Hindu prayer similar to Christianity. Never caught on, wonder if Bede was involved with that.
Jesus in a turban......
Here is an interesting website that goes over the history of Christmas.
http://www.new-life.net/chrtms10.htm
"When was Jesus born? Nothing is absolutely certain, because we are dealing with implications and assumptions, but a good guess from the Scriptures and history is September 29, 5 B.C"
God speaks to us where we are and leads us to Him from where we are--usually unbeknownst to us. So continue on your journey.
When Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland he adopted/assimilated many of the local pagan beliefs. Pagan festivals and holidays were adapted into Christian holy days, and many of the local god and goddess stories converted into tales of Irish saints.
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