Challenges To The Church In India Today By Fr. Desmond de Sousa CSsR, SAR NEWS
PANAJI, Goa (SAR NEWS) -- The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance coalition government at the Centre, despite constraints and its perpetually whining Left partners, appears capable of completing its five-year mandate. The present Indian scenario highlights the following specific challenges to the Church in relation to the government’s policy statement, the Common Minimum Programme (CMP). It consists of the macroeconomic factors affecting the four vital sectors: Agriculture, Employment, Education and Health. The CMP prioritises four aspects of sustained growth in human development in harmony with the Catholic social teaching. The Church in India has committed herself to improve the health of the poor. Prevention is better than cure is familiar to the Church’s healthcare network that reaches the poor at the grassroots level of the parish. Closely related to improving health is the fundamental right to education, where the Church in India has committed large resources in money and personnel. This right is intimately linked to the right to employment, especially in the rural agricultural sector. However, after one year of UPA rule, the financial allocations to the CMP are paltry, much to the disappointment and frustration of the Left parties. The Church in India cannot operate its own parallel programmes, but must appear visibly supporting the pro-poor initiatives of the government. Its network of 140-odd diocesan social service societies organising numerous grassroots level programmes should not only emphasise an integrated human development perspective containing these four core sectors, but should be SEEN to be contributing to the CMP. Every development programme should have political education content. This means that people become aware of the programmes planned for them, so that they organise political action to make the administration more effective in delivering these promises. This makes for good governance and eradicates corruption that thrives on the ignorance of the masses, especially in the rural areas.
