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Inculturation: The politics of the Word made Flesh
Jason Keith Fernandes
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the early 1960's, just prior to the start of the Vatican
II Council, Pope John XXIII of blessed memory, called for
aggiornamento -- a renewal -- within the Church. And lo and
behold, a great wind blew throughout the Church, a wind as if
from a blast from the very nostrils of God, that did turn
around the position of the Church; a full 180 degrees to be
precise.
The second Vatican council was a moment of almost mystic
significance, a moment that we of the Church are still
grappling to understand and negotiate as we translate the
spirit of the moment into the flesh.
Perhaps of greatest significance to the non-Western world,
countries which at that point in time, were slowly emerging
from the grip of colonial powers, the Council opened the
doors for great change as it moved away from centuries of
dogmatic Roman rigidity, and recognized among other things,
the need to respond to the peoples of the Church in the
languages of its peoples, allowing for the vernacular to
emerge and the faith of the people to emerge in their own
tongues.
Inculturation, was one such word that from this churning
became flesh and came to dwell amongst us, allowing us to
open ourselves to the plethora of local cultures that
comprised the universal Church and an entire new colour range
when engaged in iconographic exercises. The Magisterium of
the Church has used the term inculturation to define more
precisely "the incarnation of the Gospel in autonomous
cultures and at the same time the introduction of these
cultures into the life of the Church." Inculturation
therefore, signifies "an intimate transformation of the
authentic cultural values by their integration into
Christianity and the implantation of Christianity into
different human cultures."
A similar spirit moved in the Goan Church, when in
it's recently concluded Synod it gathered as a
community, of laity and clergy, to take stock of
its realities and challenges. Given the gusto with
which inculturation has been taken to by the church
within the Indian national space, it is of little
surprise that the word figured in the discussions
of the Synod itself and found place in its
concluding statement.
And yet, while the process of inculturation opens up new
spaces within Church, recognises the validity of certain
cultural expressions in the rites of the Church, the process
of this inculturation is not one that we can blindly commit
ourselves to for truly it is said, the road to hell is paved
with good intentions.
A close reading of the Magesterium's definition of
inculturation marks out the dangers that lie inherent in the
notion. The notion revolves around an identification of
authentic cultural values of a local church.
Given the overwhelming dominance of European thought, within
the Catholic church, it is not surprising that this deeply
problematic notion of cultural authenticity has been included
in the understanding of inculturation. In Europe's history of
nation-building exercises, the necessity of identifying one
"authentic" culture as the national culture, alone receives
patronage to the detriment and even the suppression of all
other cultures and values.
It is not surprising that this definition should also come up
following the period of decolonisation of the 'Third World'
and the attempts of local elite to build nation states in
these countries, similar to those in Europe. The
identification of authentic cultural values in this sense
plays right along into the nation building agenda, making the
Church an active partner in the creation of a national
culture, a process that in every country in the world, has
been marked by great violence and suffering, be it France of
the revolution or France today as it battles the cross and
the head scarf, or our own country as we slaughter ourselves
insanely, not over religious difference as some would like to
have us believe, but over differing notions of nationalism
and constituents of national culture.
There is perhaps more than a whiff of this line of
thinking when the Statement of the Synod
disapproves of, among other things, the Eucharistic
celebration where "proper decorum and religious
atmosphere cannot be maintained e.g. roadside
crosses" (p.76).
While cognizant of the Church's obligation to guide the
Catholic community in its religious worship, and mark out the
clean from the unclean, the pure from the impure; what we
also must be cognizant of is that the Goan people, a good
many of whom have been Catholic for as long as 450 years have
engaged with the Catholic Church in good times and in bad, in
sickness and in health; and through this period of time have
developed traditions that in fact mark out the very kind of
inculturation that the Church has since the Vatican Council
sought to encourage.
Given the power that flows to the Church hierarchy from the
charge given to it of identifying "authentic" cultural
values, there is a greater burden of introspection that falls
on it, before it identifies lay religious practices that are,
so to speak, unfit for consumption. Does this disapproval of
the feasts of wayside crosses then, mark more than just
discomfort emerging from the mixing of the sacred and the
profane in these spaces? Does it stem from a more partisan
position, where it represents the opposition of a
professional, and an intellectual; its lack of control over
popular culture?
What could possibly be the reason for this discomfort with
popular culture? A discomfort that is so manifest in the
Statement of the Synod as it marks out traditional feasts and
celebrations. The gaucarial system; while other members of
clergy mark out Romi Konkani, all otherwise markers of a high
degree of inculturation of the Roman Church with the local,
as cultural occurrences that need to be reworked or
abandoned?
The Synod made a valid point when it pointed to the vulgarity
to the display of wealth that is present in these
celebrations and at times the reason for these celebrations,
and of deliberate suppression of persons via the gaucarial
system. Although valid and proper as these reasons may be, I
believe that there is more to this issue than meets the eye,
and that can be read into the situation, a reading that
allows to be more sensitive to this matter of inculturation
within the Goan church.
I see two situations, related at some level, that
influence this perspective of the Synod and the
Church. First, the bane of the Goan Catholic, their
so called 'denationalisation'; and second the
concerns of the Church as an institution after the
incorporation of Goa into the Indian Union.
In the context of Goa’s bloodless, but nevertheless painful
integration into the Indian Union, the Church was seen as an
ally of the former power, it is natural if segments of the
Church hierarchy, in trying to remedy this perception and
restate the position of the Church to gain favourable
recognition from the current political powers and wipe off
the stain of being seen as a handmaiden of the former powers.
And this would not be an unjustified desire; nor is it
unnatural for the Church to play a political role; Christ’s
message being intensely political, and our Pope himself
having played some role in engineering the global decline of
communism.
Given that part of the blame for the Goan Catholic's
denationalisation has been laid at the doorstep of the
Church, it is not surprising that some within the Church, see
the need for us of the Church to "Indianise" ourselves.
Concerned with the 'denationalised' label, they work to
propagate 'Indian' values; but in doing so reify the
denationalised image, lend it truth rather than pointing out
the fallacy of the notion of denationalisation.
T.B. Cunha when using the term, used it to
castigate the political choices of a segment of
Goan society. Today, the term is commonly used to
castigate Goans for their cultural being, a usage
that seems to be a natural outcome of the Hindu
nationalism that coloured much of the Indian
nationalism that emerged as a resistance to British
control of India.
If seen in this light, then the disapproval of the popular
expression of faith and the culture it is rooted in, can be
seen as being complemented by the kind of inculturation talk
that emerges from some mouths within the Church. A general
discomfort and self-diffidence allows us to be so hugely
critical of ourselves, to the point of feeling obliged to
look elsewhere for inspiration, while destroying what exists.
The tragedy lies in a conspiracy of sorts. The more thinking
among the Catholic elite, out of a misplaced sense of guilt,
and themselves in search of a pan-Indian identity, support
this form of inculturation, in this manner robbing the
average Goan catholic of the legitimacy of their cultural
stock.
Continuing this age=old game of deriding the identity and
culture of the common man, an identity literally born from
blood, sweat and tears, while they themselves flounder along
in a dangerous game of identity seeking and creation. I would
not be stressing my point to excess if I reiterated that the
present culture of the average Goan Catholic is one that has
been born from a trial by fire and patience and the
constellation of politics and events that I have attempted to
sketch out only indicate the possibility of another
Inquisition imminent in the future of these people. A fate
hardly merited.
It has to be said though, that to its credit the Synod seems
to have warned against, an inculturation solely of external
symbols. However, without a heightened sensitivity to the
politics of inculturation, especially in the delicate
situation that India, and even more so Goa, finds itself
today, such one line riders would prove to be little more
than pious wishes, conveniently ignored and forgotten in the
euphoria of this blundering political exercise.
The question before us is not of the
appropriateness or inappropriateness of the agenda
of inculturation. The challenge before us is to
figure out how we can respect the faith, identity
and the culture of the common man. The tone of the
Synod has been to further a dialogue between the
laity and the clergy.
Perhaps rather than frowning on the practices themselves,
there is a need for dialogue, and a sophisticated approach to
these issues, to be able to appreciate the nuances of the
situation, rather than seeing it in black and white. In this
manner, we would be in a position to discern where we can
purge the practices of these vulgar displays of wealth, and
the other irritants, especially the cultural superciliousness
of some members of the community, rather than mounting a full
scale attack on them.
This would counter a cultural vacuum, and reifying the images
that emerge from nationalistic discourse; this would not
serve the community in any sense, but on the contrary would
only do harm, not just physically, but more crucially,
spiritually and culturally. The challenge is one involving
honesty and integrity; to recognise what we have and the
richness of this cultural trove, rather than for the narrow
political ends of a few short-sighted (though perhaps well
intentioned), deliberately be blind to what we do have.
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Jason K Fernandes is alumni of the National Law School in
Bangalore, and a young professional in Goa.
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