St Thomas, Turnabout

The Eastern Magi

• Indian Catholic priests and nuns are increasingly in demand in the West, which has a dearth of new recruits
  
• The flow of missionaries is now from East to West, over 20,000 Indians serve in Catholic institutions in Europe, US
  
• Valued for their qualities of head and heart, they serve as parish priests, in hospitals, also as professors, managers
  
• Prominent Indians in the Vatican hierarchy include Cardinal Ivan Dias, former Archbishop of Bombay; Father Thomas Reddy who heads Archivum Romanum; Archbishop Francis Chullikat, the Vatican's envoy in Iraq; Fr Jacob Srampickal, who heads Communications at the Pontifical Gregorian University; Monsignor Felix Machado who leads the Vatican's inter-faith dialogues

Tu ni boldi

Father Jacob Srampickal, a Keralite and director of communications at the prestigious Pontifical Gregorian University, says Indian priests are much appreciated in Europe because they do their work with a personal touch. They are still willing to go to people's homes to administer and organise family prayers. "They are very different from the formal and ritual-based ways of the local priests. Their attitude is more humane, compassionate and hospitable, which is part of our Indian culture," he adds. There is also a financial spinoff because they send a large percentage of their earnings back to their bishops in India.

Coming from a multi-religious, multi-ethnic society, Indian Catholics have helped in the cultural integration of immigrants, even in inter-religious dialogue. In fact, an Indian, Monsignor Felix Machado, has been at the forefront of the Vatican's inter-faith dialogue, participating in joint prayers with Hindu, Jain, Muslim and Buddhist priests and youth in Assisi. While the upper layers of the Vatican, including the Pope, appear to be hardening their stand on how and why a dialogue should be conducted, Indian priests have an instinctive feel for living with other religions. "I feel the future of Christianity to a big extent depends on accepting cultural diversity and fostering respect for other religions, with which Indian priests seem to be much at home," says Father Srampickal.

Father Reddy says that being from a "positive culture" is helpful in Rome where Catholics from different parts of the world congregate. "We are more ecumenical. Sometimes I try preaching Gandhiji's principles of non-violence and not differentiating between colour and creed," he said.

his respect for other religions and thoughts comes across strongly in the post-Independence generation of Indian missionaries who grew up with the ideas of Gandhi and Nehru. Even western theologians who spent time in India have been influenced by Hindu thought and culture, often to an extent that has alarmed the Vatican. Jacques Dupuis, a Jesuit who worked and taught in India for 35 years, had imbibed Indian concepts to an extent that his Christian basics were seen as shaky by authorities when he returned to Rome. His belief that the relationship between Christianity and other religions can't be viewed in terms of opposition and much less as "absoluteness on one side (Christianity) and only potentialities on the other" was found offensive, for it went against the belief of Christ as the only saviour. Dupuis was suspended from teaching at the Gregorian in 1997 and died in 2004, but he cherished his Indian experience. In one of his last interviews, he said: "I consider my exposure to Hindu reality as the greatest grace I have received from God in my vocation as a theologian."

The Vatican won't officially comment on the special grace Indians bring, or their blending of Hindu practices into Catholic rituals, for to acknowledge would be to concede. And Rome resists dilution—practical or philosophical.