http://www.rationalistinternational.net/
4 July 2012.This morning, officers of the Delhi Police reached Sanal Edamaruku’s house to arrest him. They came upon directions of a Delhi court to execute an arrest warrant issued by a Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate Court (second highest Criminal Court). If Sanal had been at home, he would be in jail now….
The officers were informed that Sanal is presently out of Delhi and traveling. They insisted on details of his whereabouts, addresses and contact numbers. Some hours later, they came again to press for information, to no avail.
What will happen next?
With this dramatic turn of events, Sanal Edamaruku’s persecution has reached a dangerous new level. Exposing the “miracle” of the water-dripping crucifix at the Velankanni church in Mumbai as a plumber’s problem, he incurred Catholic fury beyond all trademark forgiveness. Highly alarming is the fact that the Catholic side has managed to secure considerable support from Indian government agencies. The Catholic Church is representing only a small minority of believers in India. But it is backed by a powerful worldwide apparatus, driven by great ambitions to conquer India and make up for its losses in the western world. I don’t want the Dark Ages to come to India! Sanal says in the controversial TV program, drawing the battle lines
In the ongoing conflict, Sanal has the evidence-based factual truth on his side – regarding capillary action as well as regarding church history. Moreover, he enjoys the full support of the Indian Constitution that explicitly obliges all citizens to develop “scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”. And then, of course, there is the right to Freedom of Expression (Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.) on his side of the balance tray.
The revengeful local Catholic leaders, on the other side, have the tacit support of another heavy weight: the powerful Catholic Church. The Pope is keeping mum, ignoring thousands of contemporaries from various parts of the world who are calling upon the Vatican via an Online Petition of the Rationalist Association (UK) to take a stand in this case. But his Mumbai representative, Bishop Agnelo Gracias (whom Sanal encountered in the TV-9 program), does all the talking. Unstinting in his public praise for Sanal’s prosecutors, Gracias “rejoices” about their courage!
It is obvious that the Catholic Church is trying to pull the strings to silence its most vocal and courageous opponent in India. If there is one person who could cross their ambitious plans, it is Sanal Edamaruku. So there is much at stake, for both sides. How far will they be able to go? That cannot be foreseen. We have to be prepared for the worst.
Presumably the Vatican could rein in this Indian bishop (who really is over the top — it’s not like this particular “miracle” is Church dogma) as easily as they reined in the US Women Religious. The fact that they don’t tells us all we need to know about their priorities — in both cases, the Vatican’s action (or inaction) is in the direction of enhancing their power.
This calls for a protest. What would happen if a thousand Indians marched in the street openly declaring the Catholic Church’s “miracle” to be fraudulent? I know this is very easy for a foreigner to suggest, but it would be great to see momentum and support for the Indian Constitution to build and build…
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But it is backed by a powerful worldwide apparatus, driven by great ambitions to conquer India and make up for its losses in the western world.
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I don’t understand the above statement.
Sunny,
what Sanal means is that the catholic church is losing followers world wide. They aren’t even able to recruit new nuns/priests, this makes them turn to nations like India to recruit gullible victims into their fold.
One of their antics was to canonize Annakutty aka Alphonsa from kerala a poor crippled nun who died very young as a Saint
Exposures like this, especially in India are therefore bad for the church globally and hushing up whistle blowers like him will be an endeavor supported by the full global spectrum of the catholic church..
http://www.rationalistinternational.net/article/2008/20081115/en_1.html
“vocal and courageous”. I’m not sure he is the most vocal; I suspect some Hindu and Muslim critics of Catholicism and Christianity in general are more vocal. However they have the backing of their large religious structures while Sanal Edamaruku only has the relatively small group (and not a group likely to turn to violence).
I wouldn’t expect the Pope to intervene in this case. Even in the case of the US nuns the Vatican took several [or decades from the gripping of the reactionaries] (probably because the nuns haven’t actually crossed any specific lines in the sand). I would expect the first reaction (if any) to come from the Catholic bishops in India. Note the hierarchy initially had not been involved in the legal case but rather lay Catholics. I also note the petition is to the archdiocese of Bombay not to the Vatican (despite what the blog post states) which is the first level of the hierarchy to approach. Bishop Agnelo Gracias has spoken but he is an auxiliary bishop not the top gun and the context of his ‘rejoicing’ leaves it unclear whether he means the legal case or people opposing using words (the latter should be encouraged). My guess is the hierarchy will leave this to the laity so as to be able to deny trying to persecute anyone; they must be fully aware that this method could be easily used against them by far more powerful religious groups within India.