RSS chief doesn't know what's he talking about -- church leaders

RSS chief doesn't know what's he talking about -- church leaders
Express News Service

Kochi, October 9: He doesn't know what he's talking about. The RSS chief's demand for swadeshi churches is meant to divide the community by labelling some churches as patriotic, others antinational. The churches he calls swadeshi have international fellowships with the Russian and Greek orthodox churches. If it's foreign money, what about US-based Hindu organisations thriving on foreign funds? Even before the RSS was born, Christians lived and served this country. Christianity cannot be nationalised.

From Sister Nirmala of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta to church leaders in Kerala, the Christian community today reacted in a chorus of outrage against RSS chief K S Sudershan's call to set up ``indigenous

churches.''

Church leaders alleged that the ``innocuous-sounding call'' was part of a plot to restrict the freedom of minorities and to fuel suspicion that non-Hindu miniorities were somehow not patriotic.

Said Bishop Daniel Acharuparambil, Archdiocese of Verapoly: ``We've to read more into this. They (RSS) are paving the background for the much-talked about Constitution amendment to interfere in fundamental rights.''

``The church is universal,'' Sister Nirmala, Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity told reporters after a mass in Calcutta, ``it cannot be nationalised.''

Father Paul Thelekkatt, a Kerala theologian said: ``Nowhere in the world is a Catholic seen less patriotic or less nationalist because of his Catholicism, except by Marxist leaders in China and by the Sangh Parivar in India...One is Marxist fundamentalism and the other is religious fundamentalism.''

Archbishop Mar Varkey Vithayathil of the Syro Malabar Church fails to understand what the RSS chief means by swadeshi churches. ``As far as we're concerned, a church is swadeshi in every country. Faith is something beyond territories and nationalities.'' Agrees Vicar General of Thrissur Archdiocese, Joseph Kakkassery: ``There is no reason for anyone to doubt the commitment of Christians to the motherland.''

Fr Vincent Kundukulam, author of RSS and the Church sees it as ``a plan to turn Christianity into a sampradaya of Hinduism. The Syrian and Marthoma churches are local churches and cannot be compared to the Catholic church.''

Rev P S Philip, South India general secretary of the Assemblies of God agrees with Kundukulam. ``The RSS chief forgets the fact that the Orthodox Church, to which he attributes the `Swadeshi' quality has its fellowships with the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. Compared to other Indian churches, Mar Thoma Church is too small and confined to Kerala.''

``What we're having is just fellowships with foreign churches,'' continues Pastor V C Itty, overseer of Church of God, ``there is a widespread misperception about the foreign link of Christian churches in India.''