Govt's stand on issue of intolerance unclear, says Catholic Church

The meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India identified various challenges to the Church in India

Expressing concern over a "narrow culture-based interpretation of nationalism" and "increasing saffronisation of education", a congregation of 180 Catholic Bishops from across the country on Wednesday found the government’s lack of clarity and ambiguity on its stand on intolerance and growing fundamentalism to be worrisome, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. 

The five-day 32nd plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), which was held in Bengaluru and concluded on Wednesday, concluded with the drafting of a manifesto on the theme of ‘Response of the Church in India to present day challenges’, the report said. 

The Hindu reported that the document lists "widespread intolerance, religious fanaticism, attacks and atrocities on intellectuals, social activists, religious, personnel and institutions, that pose a challenge to the nation".  

Speaking to The Indian Express, CBCI Chairman Cardinal Baselios Cleemis said, "We want to bring in a new way of being a church, of looking at the country from a faith point of view. Not a fundamentalist approach but keeping an open mind to build the nation that has been in existence for thousands of years and which has a population of diverse faiths, culture, ethnicity and language. This is our pastoral plan and not a political manifesto."

"We don’t have a clear picture from the government on the issue of intolerance. Some people sometimes say positive things and the next day we have someone saying the opposite. We don’t know what to believe. As we see it, there is a growing tendency of fundamentalism in this country which has to be stopped. This is against the nature of this great tradition," Cleemis added. 

The CBCI, however, took a conservative line on issues regarding divorce, homosexuality, and family issues.

Additionally, the CBCI struck out at "western" atheism as a challenge to the Church in India. Speaking on the matter to The Hindu, Cleemis said, "India by nature is a society of faith. Indian secularism is not a rejection of faith and spirituality, but it only abhors any one-upmanship of faith. But, we see a growing threat of atheistic secularism."