Posted on 04/11/2006 9:57:54 PM PDT by NYer
KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, APRIL 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Vocations in India seem to be booming as increasing numbers of young men stepping forward to prepare for the priesthood.
In a recent interview with the international charity Aid to the Church in Need, Father Ignatius Prasad, rector of the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Chennai (formerly Madras), gave this optimistic assessment of the Church.
The priest explained that his seminary now has 286 students and that -- due to a lack of space -- he had to turn away 23 candidates, who have been forced to continue their training elsewhere.
The seminary is one of four in southern India with a combined total of almost 800 students from 28 dioceses. More than 60 of them are due to be ordained to the priesthood next month.
In Chennai, there were now more than 30 students in each year-group in the seminary's theology section, double the number in the late 1980s, Father Prasad said.
"Vocations are going up; this has been the case for the last five years or so," the rector said. "We find it difficult to admit all the applicants and set a tight deadline for them to get their papers in on time."
Father Prasad revealed that there was growing "political pressure" to limit the growth of the Church with a new anti-conversion law introduced in the state of Tamil Nadu: Preaching in public is forbidden and would-be converts to Christianity now face a barrage of paperwork thrust upon them by government officials.
Retreats, sodalities
The seminary rector said that people were turning to the Church in protest against the new regulations.
"The more pressure they put on people, the more they feel like proclaiming their faith," he said.
The priest went on to explain that lively youth programs were drawing people to the faith and encouraging men to discern a possible vocation to the priesthood. Retreats, sodalities and altar serving had all helped to boost the number of seminarians.
He also praised the work of Aid to the Church in Need, describing how the charity had supported key training for seminary staff, Mass intentions, library books and a generator.
"What we feel is so important," Father Prasad added, "is to help the students to realize what they are learning about is not so much an academic subject but a mystery, something that is very personal and with a strong human dimension to it."
Save your crocodile tears. People will always look for better economic opportunity. The economics is quite simple.As long as US or Canada boast per capita incomes in mutiples of that of poorer third world countries , people from such countries will always look to migrating to US.
The issue I have is with the propaganda spread by this idiot SOLDIEROFJESUSCHRIST that christians are being prosecuted against in India and bs about being denied employment because of his religion. Which is a blatant lie.
How would you feel if a black or a muslim American tells you how much he hates America and cannot get a job there because of his color/faith ?
So I guess by that logic, we should have laws here preventing Americans converting to Hinduism or preventing Hindus from practicing their religion since after all, American Hindus' loyalty to India must come before loyalty to the US. Actually, people can and do all the time have multiple loyalties that coexist, to family, faith, country, etc. Most of the time they are not in conflict. And unfortunately, in this country there is a little thing called the Constitution which guarantees no establishment of religion and prevents the free exercise thereof. Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. Furthermore, Christians are no Moslems and do not advocate the combination of church and state in an Ummah and never have. And they certainly are not advocating an established Christian church in India. Don't be ridiculous.
As for banning conversions, it is not exactly what the bill(not yet law) states. It bans conversions by coercion and incitement. It is powerless against individual conversions.
Israel enacted similar laws way back in 1977.
Interesting. Government first, then faith. This, in a country where where 60 per cent of the world's leprosy patients live. The Government of Gujarat has stopped the services of the Catholic Sisters who were administering and providing medical services to the Narol Leprosy Hospital. Yes, what a wonderful country where one out of 6 Indians is branded as impure, from the moment of birth.
The christian places God first, then country. There are two great commandments:
Jesus said the greatest and the first commandment is:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’.
And the second is like it:
‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’.
Mother Teresa followed these commandments. 50 years ago, she found a woman "half eaten by maggots and rats" lying in front of a Calcutta hospital. The diminutive Roman Catholic nun sat with the woman until she died. Soon after, she began a campaign for a shelter for people to die with dignity. In an abandoned temple to the Hindu goddess Kali, Mother Teresa founded the Kalighat Home for the Dying.
What do your Hindu gods say about caring for the sick, poor and dieing?
Hindu tolerance at its best!
I can hardly wait for the Hindu night killings to begin, with Christian convert-martyrs turning up in drainage ditches in remote rural areas.
Paganism - Semper Idem - from Rome to India.
Dont worry. In India too freedom of faith is a fundamental right. Otherwise how would you explain the fact that in a country with 80% hindu population , supposedly fascists at that if one goes by some of the propaganda here , the President of the country is a muslim , the Prime Minister is a Sikh , the leader of the ruling political party is a Catholic , and the Chief of Armed Forces is a Sikh ?
The issue is with forced conversions or conversions done using alurements , as well as the abuse of hinduism done by some fanatic x'tian missionaries. That cannot be tolerated.
Ask yourself - all those missionaries , why are they in India and why not in Saudi Arabia , Pakistan and other Islamic nations ?
This is why > "In Saudi Arabia, one cannot carry Bible or any other non-Islamic religious book, nor can there exist any Church, temple or synagogue. In so-called modern democratic Muslim states, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, non-Muslims are routinely being harassed, their young girls are being abducted and forcefully married to Muslims, they are being evicted from their homes, lands and properties and their religious places of worships are being attacked and destroyed."
In China - foreign missionaries are not allowed entry. Chinese pastors are routinely imprisoned , tortured.
So its only in pacifist , law abiding , peaceful societies like the hindus society and secular , friendly , countries like India that the fanatic bigoted racist x'tian missionaries can carry out their soul harvesting fantasies. Even if they meet a little resistance , they make a hue and cry of it. As we have seen here.
Why? Because you no longer believe Mother Cow gave birth to your ancestors?
This sounds like a "real Indians can only be Hindu" type of argument.
Of course Christians are part of a global brotherhood. That has absolutely nothing to do with their nationality.
Mother Teresa and her Missionary of Charity. Great PR they got. You think they are the only people who have taken care of the poor ? Just a mile from the Missionary of Charity center , there is a hindu organisation called Ramkrishna Mission. They have a hospital that provides free medical care , schools all over the country for poor children etc. Ramkrishna Mission is lot bigger than Missionary of Charity and takes care of 100 times more poor people. But you never heard of them. Why ? They are a hindu organisation. And you think only Mother Teresa cares for the poor.
I dont know what our 'hindu gods' as you so condescendingly put them tell us...I never spoken to them. I bet your x'tian god talks to you a lot.
You should thank your lucky stars that Christians in India feel generous enough to run most of your schools and hospitals. Otherwise you'd probably have died in ignorance years ago on a dungheap from gastrointestitis.
Hindu bigotry was easy enough for me to see as a Westerner when I visited India for an extended period in 1996.
I'm not insulted. Of course, I'm an American who likes to fly the Siwss flag.
I'm not insulted. Of course, I'm an American who likes to fly the Swiss flag.
These people are fighting for Independence, not a Christian Crusade like the Hindu facists.
Most educated Indians are educated in Christian schools because Christians run most of the schools. If it weren't for the Christians, India would still be a huge mass of ignorance.
Christians used to run most of India's hospitals and schools during the days of British rule and a a few decades afterwards when India was a socialist state. But no lonnger. These days majority of schools and hospitals in India are run by hindu capitalists as they are seen to be a profitable business. Health tourism is a big thing in India lately - a muti-billion $$$ business. Many folks in US and Europe come to India to avail of medical services ranging from surgery to recuperation.
Obviously you are an ignorant racist and I dont expect people like you to know better anyway.
It wouldn't surprise me. There is still discrimination against blacks in corporate America.
Well, he's from Goa, and India stole Goa by force from Portugal. Why shouldn't he have an allegiance of sympathy to Portugal?
As for banning conversions, it is not exactly what the bill(not yet law) states. It bans conversions by coercion and incitement.
Which is what? Any conversion that the Hindu authorities deem coercive and by incitement? Obviously, given the state of Christianity in a land of persecution, people aren't being "coerced" into joing a religion which will only bring them negative social consequences. Please, tell me of all the forced Baptisms, and people dragged away at night to be made into Christians that this law would be attempting to stop. That is coercion.
Well, on the bright side, she hadn't already been tossed into the flames of her husband's funeral pyre, since Christians had outlawed that sort of barbarity 100 years previous. By that standard, she was lucky to still be alive being eaten by rats and maggots.
What do your Hindu gods say about caring for the sick, poor and dieing?
You already know that. It is their karma to live miserably and suffer because they were great sinners in a previous life. That is why Mother Theresa was able to find so many of them lying in the gutters unattended. The Hindu "gods" say "Screw 'em, because you might contaminate yourself if you touch them."
That's not true. There are a lot of Christian-run schools. But they are nowhere near the number of public schools/ private, secular schools. And that 'mass of ignorance' remark is condescending, and by itself mirrors your own lack of information about schooling in India.
http://www.indianchild.com/schools_in_india.htm
Besides, most of the graduate-level and advanced studies colleges are run by Indians who also happen to be Hindus (not to be confused with Hindu colleges).
Really? Well then they are fighting members of their own ethnic groups, more than anyone else. The ones who haven't converted, to be more specific.
Are you serious? What are your views on the former Mexican governance over territories presently constituting the south-western United States?
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