The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-05-30
5R Million Catholics
Church La d Fights
Stiff Uphill Battle
by Erik v. KuehneIt.L eddIhn

hy Erik v. KuehneIf-L eddihn
One fifth of mankind is living in India and Pakis.
tan, but only five and a half million of them are
Catholics.
Here the Church is fighting a stiff uphill battle.
According to a tradition which is finding more
and more historic confirmation it was st. Thomas
the Apostle who brought Christianity to India. When
the Portuguese landed there more than 400 years ago
they found flourishing Christian communities under
a native hierarchy but not in communion with Rome.
Their liturgy was in Old Syriac. More and more
of these Christians eventually joined the Church in
a 'uniate' rite. They live almost exclusively in the
South which, by race and language, is Dravidian, not
Aryan.
The Portuguese converted other Hindvs and
gradually the Church made Roadway in Northern
India TOO, though at . much slower pace. Since India
achieved its independence the number OF conversions
has decreased.
It is no longer pasanism in either its poIytheistic
or modern, naferialisfie form which presents the OBJ
staeIe, but Indian nationaIism which is going through
q viruIenf stage.
Today an educated Hindu would oppose his sons
conversion not because this would amount to a
denial of Vishnu, Kali, or Krishna but because it
would appear to him as an "unpatriotic" action, and
some sort of treSaon. This is not the case in either
China, Japan, or Indonesia, but it is true of India and
the Arab countries of the Near East.
European and American fashions, machinery.
music, art, literature, movies, food and language are
enthusiastically received but not the one thing which
makes Western civilization tick: Christianity.
Once, due especially to British protection, it was
Professionalism and its various branches which formed
fhe largest body Of Christians in India but since some
time ago the Catholics outnumber the Profestants
almost two to one thus putting themselves in the
"IimeIight."
Conversions are more easily achieved among the.
lower layers who lose nothing by changing their faith
than among the higher castles where family obstacles
are often simply unsurmountable. Each individual
conversion constitutes a major material problem and
headache for the missionaries for it means, in prac-
teal terms, that they have to find a new job, a new
1hnHn q yhnfn nnyU f fnr h unrtn0 ~ a n IN ny1nc-
ton. Conversions of single women are very rare, OF
married women almost impossible, of older men inn
probable. He who wants to embrace Christianity and
belongs to the more elevated layers or castles has to
face social persecution.
He might easily suffer physical harm, for beat
ings and assault are by no means rare. Naturally
under these circumstances nobody is quickly accepted
into the Church. instruction and the waiting period
sometimes take more than q year.
For me it was most interesting to visit church
after church and to gather information. It is evident.
that. the Portuguese groundwork is still effective
as the basis of missionary activities.
A large number of the native clergy have Portu-
guese names not necessarily because they are Portu-
guese or even Goan don't say "GoaneseD descent, but
Portuguese. 4r~ 8
At present this is, of course, rather a handicap
as all of India furiouSly claims the return of Portu-
guese Goa to the motherland. The Goans, as a matter
of fact, are partly of mixed blood and their culture is
a ~SynthesiS Of Latin and Hindu elements. In Goa st.
Francis Xavier is buried and his tomb is a pilgrimage
place for Catholics, Hindus, and Mohammedans alike.
Everywhere asked for statistics about CONVEX.
sions.
I will not publish them, not because they might
gravely ~disappoint my readers (which, indeed, they
would, but because they still would cause indigna-
ton and alarm in India.
What appears to us as a molehill seems a noun
tain to the pagans.
The unsatisfactory progress among the upper
classes has been blamed by one of the native Indian
archibshops, on the lack of proper training of mis-
sionaries in regard to Indian philosophy and theology.
They were mostly satisfied to convert the UNI
educated untouchables, but to missionize from the
bottom upward is usually self-defeating.
Those who migrate from a soIidly Catholic vii
Iase to the big cities are often lost to the faith, and
those Christians who want to rise socially encounter
insvrmounfabIe barriers in . pagan society.
What we need right away is the conversion OF
men in social, intellectual, and political key positions.
And that is immensely more difficult to achieve in
India than in the Far East. Yet it must be done