SURAT, Oct 19: The time for a democratic overhauling of the Roman Catholic Church has finally arrived. For in a bid to ensure transparency within the Church, the organisation has initiated a process of nominating priests, by the process of ballot, who in turn will elect the religious leaders at highest-levels.Interestingly, the changes seem to have initiated on the orders of the Vatican - which till now controlled all appointments within the setup, right from the diocese to the parish - following conflicts with organisations like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Jagran Manch, Bajrang Dal on the issue of conversion.Confirming the move, Father Jayanti Macwan, priest of the Nanpura Catholic Church and who was recently appointed the official co-ordinator of communications of South Gujarat, told Express Newsline that it was aimed at strengthening the church.When asked for the reasons, Macwan - while attributing it to democratic currents sweeping the whole world - said, ``It would encourage active representation of the lower-ranks in decision making at the highest level.''The new system replaces the one wherein all priests were nominated directly by the bishop of the diocese (the one in Vadodara comprises five districts of South Gujarat, including Surat). Though the bishop, consulted his higher-ups before making the nominations, lower-level priests had no say in the appointments.Explaining further, Macwan said that in Surat, the fathers of the six churches would elect one priest each to the priest council. The priest council will then elect members of the diocesan pastrol council, a consulting committee for the bishop of the diocese. The members themselves however will not vote.While the Surat deanery received a letter on October 6 from Rev Godfrey de Rozario, the bishop of the diocese, asking it to elect representatives in the diocesan pastrol council at the earliest, Father Macwan and Father Arthur Menezes were elected representatives to the council.Besides appointing a co-ordinator for communications, the church has also initiated the process of democratically appointing priests, who will assist or even have a say in managing the affairs of the church.Commenting on the new system, Father Vincent S J of Navsarjan said that the attempt would ensure supportive representation within the church. ``Though the members themselves will not vote, the priests will elect representatives who will help manage the institution in a better way,'' he told Express Newsline.
