[lg policy] (no subject)

Tue Apr 28 15:15:24 UTC 2015

Bengaluru: Archbishop’s circular on language policy in Archdiocese warmly
welcomed

>From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Apr 27: Several Catholic and Christian organisations, who have
come together under the banner of Indian Christians United Forum (ICUF)
headed by social activist T J Abraham, have warmly welcomed the recent
circular on the contentious language issue in the liturgy in the
Archdiocese of Bangalore giving primacy to Kannada.

The Archbishop’s efforts to put an end to the contentious issue, which has
been festering for the last 40 years in the Archdiocese of Bangalore
disturbing peace and curbing progress of the Catholic church in the name of
using different languages in liturgy in the churches must be supported by
all Catholics as the issue of giving primacy to Kannada had been dividing
the Catholics along linguistic lines and creating an unhealthy and
uncomfortable atmosphere.

"In fact, the situation had been vitiated to such an extent that many
Catholics were keeping off the Church or moving towards other denominations
of the Christians," Abraham said.

The news conference addressed by ICUF President T J Abraham was attended by
Victor Edward D’Souza, Chairman of the Federation of Konkani Catholic
Associations, Silvian Noronha President, Indiranagar Konkani Kutam,
Johnson, Secretary of Bangalore Central Council Vincent de Paul Society,
Antony M Lobo, President, Karnataka Kannada Christa Yuvakara Balaga, Dolphy
D’Cunha, President Carmel Kutam, Sandeep Pilli, President Living Lay Youth
Bangalore Diocese, Lullus Cutinho, Area Council President Vincent de Paul
Society, Edwin D’Souza, President, Sarvabhasha Catholic Christra Sangha,
Ida Sequeira, President, KONCAB, Lawrance, Secretary Karnataka Kannada
Christa YuvakaraBalaga, Aida Margaret D’Cunha, Secretary, ICUF, Richard,
Secretary, Sarvabhasha Catholic Christra Sangha, and Arun Fernandes,
Secretary FKCA.

With the issuance of the latest circular by the Archbishop, the
four-decade-old language controversy has been put to rest and a "best
possible permanent solution" has been found with the intervention of
Vatican.

"We welcome the circular issued by the Archbishop based on the directives
of the Vatican as it allows people of all language groups like Konkani,
English, Telugu, Hindi, Tamil or Malayalam to express their faith and
participate in the Holy Mass and other religious activities in their
mother-tongues even while giving the due respect and priority to Kannada in
all the churches of the Archdiocese, which is in accordance with the spirit
of the Vatican Council II," a joint press release issued at the press
conference said.

Abraham said people belonging to other religious conglomerations have been
trying to derive pleasure by creating trouble in the Catholic community, at
the instance of Anti-Catholic people/agents within our community, who are
pretending to be Catholics overtly but are covertly working for
Non-Catholic denominations to damage the interest of the Catholic Church
and take away people to their denominations. If there is an iota of
self-respect people who are not Catholics should not comment on the
internal matter of the church.

"We challenge the Non-Christians, who want to comment or interfere in the
language issues of the Catholic Church to first convert and become
Christians to gain a right to comment about the internal affairs of the
Catholic Church," Abraham said pointing out that when we talk about the
population of Karnataka as six crore, the figure includes people speaking
Telugu, Urdu, Konkani, Tulu, Hindi, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and
other languages and they cannot be expected to forget or neglect their own
mother-tongues, especially in matters like prayers or religious services.

The press release pointed out that there have been several groups claiming
to be from the Catholic community interested in the Preservation,
Propagation and Protection of the Kannada language and have been publicly
protesting and perpetually creating an atmosphere of hatred amongst
Catholics on linguistic lines, and added: "With the latest
directive/language policy their demands have been very well addressed and
settled. If the real reason of these groups was/is the concern for Kannada,
the present/new policy should be acceptable."

If the current language policy is not acceptable to someone, Abraham
contended that their opposition should be construed as motivated by some
other anti-Catholic reasons and not Kannada at all. There are some people
in the garb of being Catholics, actually working towards disturbing the
cordial atmosphere amongst the Catholics, only to drive people away from
the Catholic community to other denominations.

"The real Kannada Catholics who have real concern for Kannada should be
able to identify such bogus crusaders, who are out there to mislead
Catholics saying Kannada is being disrespected or is not being given its
due status," Abraham said.

The present circular/language policy making Kannada the principle language
of the Archdiocese, with scheduling Kannada Mass to be given prime time and
that Jubilee, Chrism Mass, Ordination etc, which the Archbishop presides
will be held in Kannada, is a directive by which the Archbishop has
succeeded to introducing something, which the State Government itself has
failed in trying to introduce Kannada as a compulsory subject in schools
across the state.

Those who oppose the directives of Vatican should understand that they are
actually opposing the directive of the highest Authority of the Catholic
Church, which is being given due respect by the highest court of our
nation, for it is ecclesiastical matter.

Catholics irrespective differences should make a concerted effort to
implement the new Policy/laws with the spirit of goodwill and undivided
obedience to our higher ecclesiastical authorities, and also strive to put
an end to this long-standing language controversy which has caused lot of
pain and hampered growth in the Archdiocese, Abraham has appealed.

    Permanent solution to Bengaluru Archdiocese language row at last

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=315103
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