Author: John Mary
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: August 3, 2006
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060803/asp/nation/story_6562131.asp
The predominant Catholic church in Kerala
has expressed dismay at the declining numbers of the community and has urged
the faithful to stick to the Christian concept of sexuality that blends love
and procreation.
In a pastoral letter to be read out during
Mass this Sunday, in the year dedicated for family renewal, Syro-Malabar Major
Archbishop Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil reminds married couples of the
tenets of responsible parenthood, rooted in Christian values.
The letter reflects the mood at the just-concluded
synod of bishops of the Syro-Malabar See, the dominant among the three Catholic
churches in India, whose origins cane be traced to St Thomas the Apostle and
the Syrian-Oriental tradition of worship.
The synod records with concern the anti-life
and selfish tendencies creeping in among the faithful. But apart from that,
the demographic anxieties of the community are joblessness and the resultant
migration, highly prevalent among Syrian Christians, which have led to the
dwindling Syro-Malabar Catholic population.
The last census had shown a decline in the
population, especially among Syro-Malabar Catholics and Marthomites.
The church had sought to catch up with the
Syrian Catholic diaspora by establishing dioceses and appointing bishops outside
the state and the country. But as demographer K.C. Zachariah infers in one
of his studies, the community is facing the "Parsi syndrome"- of
fast depleting population, threatening the very existence of the community.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic community's growth
rate from 2001 to 2030 is likely to end up at minus 4.9 per cent whereas Hindus
will grow at 11.2 per cent, Muslims at 45.9 per cent and Christians, in general,
at 0.2 per cent in Kerala, according to Zachariah.
The church fears that this phenomenon is already
seen in the average 1.7 children per Syro-Malabar Catholic family. The cardinal
reminds the congregation that the community would face a situation similar
to that in European countries, where half the population will comprise the
old, who cannot work, by 2050.
Read against the background of the Catholic
church's pro-life stance, as opposed to the use of contraceptives and abortion,
the pastoral letter is a call to beget as many children as possible by married
couples who have the resources.
Sex is not merely an instrument of pleasure
but integral to procreation, which the church reckons as participating in
the holy act of creation.
There's been a growing tendency among couples
in their pursuit of pleasure to opt out of having children, and the pastoral
missive traces the malaise to the influence of mass media, globalisation and
a perverse view of life, and not lack of wealth or health.
There's a growing feeling that children are
a nuisance to a pleasurable life. Even those who have the resources do not
beget for selfish reasons, it says, adding that growing extra and pre-marital
relationships and divorce for silly reasons are destroying the sanctity of
family life.
Pointing to a general decadence, the letter
points out that baptism, birthdays, first Holy Communion, betrothal, weddings
and wedding anniversaries have turned into occasions for splurging. Common
meals should be savoured in the spirit of the Last Supper, in a spirit of
prayer and solidarity in Jesus.
