This is a good thing. Many East Indians are very intelligent, hard working and family or community oriented. What I don’t get from the article, or what I may have overlooked, is why are these young men choosing to devote their lives to the Christian faith vs the Hindu or Budhism of their ancestors?
My guess is those two faiths do not put a great importance on spreading their influence through good deeds, community services or public acts. As long as they speak understandable english and wish to live as Americans, I say, bring it on.
There is a dearth of American born men who wish to become a priest. I, for one am in favor of allowing women to also accept the collar. Women can be as loyal, as sincere, as devout, as astute in their faith as men can. The woman’s expression of faith will, of course be perceived as different. That’s okay. I think, eventually, it will occur.
There is a long tradition of Christianity in India. Most of the Catholics are of the Syro-Malabar or Syro-Malankara rites, although some, especially in cities, are Roman Rite.
No to priestesses!
These are Goanese or other traditionally Catholic groups in India - yes, there are such. Note his name - Fernandes - thats Portuguese in origin, from Goa and a few other places. India has some of everything.
Priests from India is nothing new. It was one spot where there were more vocations than churches. We had a few come to the Philippines when I was a kid, because we always had the opposite situation there.
**There is a dearth of American born men who wish to become a priest.**
Not really.
Do you have a Serra Club in your area? Perhaps you can start one.
Pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
These are Goans or Mangaloreans (going by their surnames) - so the last ancestors who were Hindus were probably back in the 15th century. Their families have been Christian for 500 years.
it would be like asking you why you would devote yourself to the Christian faith as opposed to the Druidic or Greek/Irish/Roman/etc. faith of your ancestors
Also, Buddhism, while it spread heavily in the period from 300 BC to about 100 AD, died out after losing state sponsorship and most of India became Brahminical Hindu or various other "Indic religions" (remember that Hinduism is not a religion but more an umbrella term).
in South-Western India, the peoples were Brahminical Hindus, with Mangaloreans being more of Brahman background and Goans of other castes
Further south, in Kerala you have a large number of St. Thomas Christians -- these are descendents of those who St. Thomas the apostle converted in the 1st century, so 2000 years of Christianity. These may very well have been of Jewish origin - as Judeans have been in Kerala since the Babylonian persecution (600 BC) and even some Israelites from earlier (750 BC)
Hinduism is not a "faith" in the same sense as Christianity or Buddhism or Islam. It has no central book, tenets of belief etc. - it include athiests (Arya Samaj), various primary gods (shiva, vishnu, etc.) - it is analogous to calling the various "religions" of pre-Christian Europe as "Eureopan religions"
Buddhism does put a lot of importance on good deeds, community services
What has this article got to do with America? These are Christian priests for India -- India has 40 million professed Christians (and probably many more hidden)
Also, India has about 353 different languages (2 national level languages: English and Hindi and 25 official languages used in the various countries that make up the federation of India and in many places the two official languages are not known, so the priests are better off learning the local languages
