Splendours of diversity

Thus, to all intents and purposes, the Pope8217;s visit is going to be a tame affair unless certain inimical forces invest it with more importance than it deserves. If the Centre8217;s delay in clearing the visit can be dismissed as symptomatic of red-tapism, if not saffron-tapism, the voices of protest heard over the visit are nothing but paranoiac. If the way the Hindutva brigade has been reacting to the event is anything to go by, it is as if Hinduism faces a danger from his fleeting visit. The relatively reticent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief RajendraSingh has virtually warned the Pontiff against speaking that quot;salvation was possible only through Christ.quot;

It8217;s perhaps the most unwarranted intervention ever made by the RSS chief. The burden of his song is that the Pope should speak what the RSS wants to hear. It is perhaps the first time that a distinguished national guest has been told what to say when he arrives. The Pope is one of the most peripatetic of world leaders and there has never been one occasion when his remarks had caused any row, diplomatic or political, in the host country even when he has very rigid, conventional and Catholic views on such controversial issues as abortion, sex, family planning and the ordination of women.

Those who question his role in the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe forget the fact that the Communists themselves had a role to play in his elevation as Pope. When a new archbishop had to be nominated to the see of Cracow in 1963, the names of three candidates were submitted to the Polish government, whichrejected the first two because they were of noble birth and chose Karol Wojtyla, a commoner, who eventually became Pope John Paul II.

The RSS chief wants him to say that all religions are great and are different ways to God. But the question is: why should he read out somebody else8217;s speech when the nation is keen to know his mind and the evolving Christian doctrine. Assuming for a second that all political parties are to speak in one language, will it not be a negation of democracy, which is nothing but a celebration of multiplicity? What Singh advocates is against the tenets of democracy, ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue.

At the root of the problem is the persistent refusal to accept certain changes that have come about in Christianity, particularly Catholicism, as is manifest in the writings of the proponents of Hindutva. For instance, it is true that at one time Christians believed in the third century dictum of Origen and Cyprian, Extra ecclesiam nulla salus Outside the church there is nosalvation. But this is no longer the church8217;s position as can be inferred from this incident. As far back as AD 1076 when Christian-Muslim rivalry and crusade-jihad enthusiasm was at its peak, the Muslim King Anzir of Mauritania sent some gifts to Pope Gregory VI. The Pope acknowledged this friendly gesture by an unusually positive and tolerant letter for an age of religious intolerance. He wrote: quot;Almighty God who desires all human beings to be saved 1 Tim. 2:4 and none to perish is well pleased to approve in us most of all that besides loving God, humans love fellow-humans, and do not do to others anything they do not want to be done unto themselves Mt 7:14. We and you must show in a special way to the other nations an example of this charity, for we believe and confess one God, although in different ways.quot; Of course, this is nothing new to an Indian as aeons ago the Rig Veda had mentioned that quot;truth is one but it is diversely interpreted by scholars.quot;

Many cataclysmic events have taken place inChristendom since then, the most important being the Second Vatican Council 1962-65 when the church asked Christians to quot;acknowledge, preserve and promote the values of other faiths.quot; Incidentally, the person who contributed most in eight speeches to the deliberations of the Council was this particular Pope. Again, it was he who corrected the wrong in the treatment of Galileo and who recognised that God can be both masculine and feminine at the same time.

Unfortunately, the advocates of Hindutva do not take into account the changes in the doctrinal positions of the church. In the recent debate on conversions, the one book they quoted most was the Niyogi Commission report, which incidentally preceded Vatican II. In any case, it is unbecoming of a grand organisation like the RSS which takes pride in Vedic civilization to threaten the Pope with quot;protestquot; if he does not speak what it wants to hear.

It is instructive to quote BJP MP Arun Shourie, from his book Missionaries in India, the quot;scaffoldingquot; ofwhich was the lecture and discussion he had at the Catholic Bishops Conference of India. Shourie concludes his controversial book, quot;They heard me in pin-drop silence, and with unbroken patience. They told me unambiguously that they did not agree with what I had said. Several of their observations left no doubt that they were put out by what I had said. But they pasted no motive. They were courteous and the very models of dignity and decorum throughout. I left feeling I had been among friends. If only we could learn at least this one thing from them: if we could only learn how to disagree. How much better off our country would be.quot; One can only wish that the Pope will have occasion to express similar sentiments when he concludes his visit in November next.

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