Roman Catholic Church’s double standards

GANDHI IS A PERVERT, AND WE NEVER SOLD INDULGENCES; SAY INDIAN CHRISTIANS

On 24th May, 2011, the Kerala Catholic Church came out with their latest bloomer when they whined that the Social Science textbook of Standard X classes contained untruths derogatory to the Church. They have asked Kerala’s Christian state government to withdraw the thousands of printed textbooks and issue new ones.

Their objection is to the Chapter ‘Aadhunika lokathinte Udayam’ [Dawn of the modern world] in which mention is made of the intellectual and social repression in Europe by the Rom an Catholic Church  in the middle ages. They protest strongly against the passage that says that the Church was a feudal power oppressing the poor; and that clerical abuses included sale of ‘indulgences’ or pardon of sins, for money.

If you casually search Google for ‘sale of pardons by the Church in the middle ages’, it will be throw up a million authentic references including accredited Catholic sources,  to it as a purely historical truth. It is all part of the history of the development of the modern world. One wonders why the ungodly rich and immoral Kerala Church is trying to make themselves laughed at through such an imbecile demand to shut out truth. Do they think they are in medieval Europe? Are they so sure that Keralites are all morons, even after the Hindus of Kerala refused a reasonable majority to the Christian/Moslem UDF through a silent undercurrent?

To see the joke, please refer merely to the Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English on the word ‘pardon’: par·don / ‘pärdn/ • n. the action of forgiving or being forgiven for an error or offense: he obtained pardon for his sins. ? a remission of the legal consequences of an offense or conviction: he offered a full pardon to five convicted men. ? hist. Christian Church an indulgence, as widely sold in medieval Europe.

I would suggest to the Kerala Catholic Church to ask for the withdrawal of the Dictionary. Or better still, order the UDF to do so. Oommen Chandy is famous for writing job- recommendations addressed even to the US President.

To be read with this comic story is the horrible reaction of the Jesuits order of the Catholic Church of Gujarat to the Gujarat’s government’s decision to ban ‘Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India’ by Joseph Lelyveld. The book says that Mahatma Gandhi was a homosexual!

THEMALLU PRIESTS [their names indicate them to be so] who are spokesmen of the Church in Gujarat have “termed the intention to ban a book on Mahatma Gandhi as “gagging” the freedom of expression”!!

Ban on Gandhi book spells bias, feel Church leaders
Posted By jessy On April 1, 2011 @ 5:36 pm In Indian News | No Comments
Church leaders in Gujarat have termed the intention to ban a book on Mahatma Gandhi as “gagging” the freedom of expression.
Condemning the proposed ban by the Gujarat government on Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India by Pulitzer prize winner Joseph Lelyveld in advance of publication, they said the action amounted to gagging the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed in the constitution.
The book was to be banned in the  state for reportedly denigrating Gandhi, held in high esteem by Indians for his role in the freedom struggle.
Chief minister Narendra Modi had told the state assembly on March 30 that the writer had portrayed the ‘father of the nation’ in a very “perverted and despicable” manner and “it cannot be tolerated”.
Jesuit activist Father Cedric Prakash, who directs the Prashant (tranquility) NGO, said that instead of arbitrarily going for a ban, the authorities should have made an “objective assessment” and challenged the contents of the book with which they did not agree upon.
Father Verghese Paul, director of the Catholic Information Service Society, said that even Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi did not want a ban on the book.
The Modi government appears to be “prejudiced” as it has not explained why the book is being banned, he added.
Father Lancy Lobo, who heads the Centre for Culture and Development at Vadodara, commented that the government appears to be over-enthusiastic in banning the book, which it has “not even read,”
As for Gandhi’s status, he said: “we all love our icons personally but Gandhi seems to have been raised to the status of divinity which is not proper”.
The priest said the author had himself denied having made any racist remark against Gandhi in the book.
“But the media seems to have misrepresented facts in its reports about the book”, concluded Father Lobo.
[Article printed from CathNews India: http://www.cathnewsindia.com
URL to article: http://www.cathnewsindia.com/2011/04/01/ban-on-gandhi-book-spells-bias-feel-church-leaders/

I can only painfully comment that too much wine, women and cash have turned the heads of Indian Catholic priests, as it was in the early times of the Church in Europe. I feel certain that they would not mind canonizing Sonia Gandhi later on, for having afforded them such libertine times in Aarsha Bharath!

Responses