Winston Churchill won the war, but Clement Attlee was elected PM

I was just reflecting about WYD!

It was great success - as an event. The government has done a wonderful job. They poured out money and support. The infrastructure - public transport, randwick, barangaroo, security - was excellent. The pilgrims were excellent - their happiness, joy and discipline were exemplary. Sydniers were so welcoming. The Church organization did a good job - the billeting, hospitality, the ceremonies - esp, the Way of the Cross and final Mass were excellent.

Only one thing failed. the PR - public relations. It was a disaster. Except the official media (particularly new corp print media), all others tired their level best to tarnish the Catholic fest, by blowing the sex scandals and atheist/liberal views out of proportion in their prime time and space. The internet was the ugliest thing. I followed it till Thursday. Hopeless.

The Church (in Aus) didn't see that it was coming. When it came, it didn't know how to address it, when it addressed, it failed miserably.

Cardinal Pell did a wonderful job in bringing and conducting WYD in Aus. But many a time he failed to reap the fruits of it, by allowing himself to be exposed to unwanted controversies. Whether it was how he dealt the "sex abuse cases of the priests" (in this case a man who died in prison before 10 years) or "more western babies" or "un-linking climate change from human activity" (what the hell on earth a Cardinal should comment on the relationship between climate change and human activity (aka pollution) during WYD. It belongs to scientists and does not belong to religions to prove or disprove it, let science do it. May be on the basis of that we could postulate moral implications!), he was a PR failure.

He is good man, with lot of convictions. He was the right person to conduct WYD (except PR could have been given to a different team).

It was Winston Churchill who won the World War II as the PM of England. But it was Clement Attlee who succeeded him after the War. I heard that the people of England did a right thing by ditching their war hero over a moderate face. They had known that they wanted a moderate face to heal the wounds of war.

I think Rome will learn from history. I think, Pell will be taken to Vatican for greater roles in the Church. Australia (esp, Sydney) will have a new face - a moderate, happy face!

CHRIST University, India - The first ever Catholic university in India

Here is the much awaited good news: Christ became University!! (as reported in www.cmi.in) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India, in its notification of 22 July 2008, has declared Christ College, located in Bangalore, Karnataka, as 'Deemed-to-be- University’. Christ College, till now Autonomous College, is now a University Rev. Dr. Augustine Thottakara, CMI, Rector Dharmaram College, President of the Board of Trustees of Christ College, and President of the Governing Body, has been elected as the Chancellor and President of Christ University by the Governing Body according to the directives of UGC. The Chancellor and President has appointed, according to the UGC Rules, Father Dr. Thomas C. Mathew, CMI, hitherto Principal, Christ College Autonomous, as the Vice Chancellor of the University. Other office-bearers will be elected/appointed in due course of time. Hearty Congratulations!
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This is my reply to cmigroup mail:

It's a great moment of pride in the history of Indian Catholics. It's a decisive moment in the history of CMI congregation. Blessed Chavara would be shedding tears of happiness in heaven! My heartfelt congratulations to all - especially Fr Chatamparmabil, the Vice-chancellor of Christ University (and not forgetting all previous and present visionaries of Christ and Dharmaram) - who worked hard to realize this dream. Well done. Let our Lord continue to bless!

Jaison Paul Mulerikkal
12 Chewings Street
Page, ACT 2614
Canberra, Australia

Globalisation of Human Resource and Climate Change

Immigration must be cut to tackle climate change, says study - as reported by (Herald Sun). (IMMIGRATION must be slashed if Australia has any chance of seriously tackling climate change, says a Monash University study.)

I found that it was absurd and send a reply like this:

The term 'scientific' , 'research' and 'monash' are just decorative in this article. This is the most ABSURD thing that I have heard in the recent past. It seems that they are talking about "Australia warming" rather than "global warming"! Migration is only people moving from one part of the world to another. It's not going to affect the global warming. Or if the argument is to deprive people belonging to resource-less regions of the world (at the moment - like India or China) to confine to their regions, the policy will backfire. Then there wont be any moral ground for resource-ful countries (like Australia) to preach/persuade those countries. And those countries cannot be intimidated by economic or military pressures anymore. Like globalisation of resources, the globalisation of human resources cannot be reverted and should be continued (in a faster pace) without fail. And if we can read between these lines, there's one more thing to be done - which is the RIGHT thing to do - "Like all Australians they'll be living at twice the standard of living of current residents if the Government's predictions for per capita economic growth are correct,'' - BRING DOWN the CONSUMPTION of resources in resource-ful regions/countries of the world, because the the Globe's resources are limited.

"Convincing Victory" of India

The Manmohan Singh government in India survived a confidence motion yesterday to go ahead with the Civil Nuclear Deal with US.

It was a "convincing victory"! Victory of the WILL of the people of India. We do have difference of opinions. That we have showed in the oppositions to the Deal. But in spite of our differences, as a nation, we are ready to go forward and claim our place in the history. We are determined.

The bribing allegations is only a part of the game (the BJP and Communists want to save their face). We all know that politicians receive money. In India, we call it as bribing and in the "developed world" they call it as lobbying (just makes it legal.. so no bribing..hihi). Only thing whether it was caught red-handed. But, even IBN-CNN went backward and not yet produced anything and which shows that there wont be much to come and even if something appear, its credibility will be heavily disputed. So no fuss as well. (It's time in India to stop horse trading and to find ways to find legal ways for acquiring money in politics, to support politicians to sustain).

The Singh is really King!

World Youth Day an awakening time for all Australians of goodwill

The following is an article send by me to the Print Media in Australia during WYD 08 and was not published!!!
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As tens of thousands of young people from around the world flock together in Sydney for World Youth Day, it gives all Australians of goodwill to look deep into their own spiritual and religious self. As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd rightly puts it, these youngsters have come here as 'pilgrims of peace' rather than marching for a war as most youngsters have done in the past. It is really a history-making event.

As one among those young ones who is going to be in Sydney for the WYD celebrations and hosted around 70 of those young happy pilgrims in our parish, I am happy to confirm that they are proud young Catholics, who are determined to follow their leader and God - Jesus - and his Church. They got first hand experience of the Catholic Church and its teachings and they are well aware of its failures in the past too. Even then they love their God and Church. The big question before all people of goodwill in Australia would be, "What these young people have to convey to us?"

In spite of all apparent failures of Catholic Church - like the recent priest sex scandals in the Western countries and ruthless attack from various philosophies - whether it is communism or atheism or consumerism - the youth of the world comes to the beautiful realization that there are no other system or philosophy that has ever succeeded as Christ and his Church throughout the history of humankind.

Many of the allegations surfaced against Church at the wake of this great awakening of Spirit along with World Youth Day are misleading and many other stories have been allowed to explode without proportion.

Priest sex abuse scandals are very much confined to certain cultures and regions in Catholic Church and that cannot be attributed universally to Catholic Church. Church has repeatedly assured its assistance to heal the wounds of victims and is ready to refine its processes. But at the same time, since priests comes from the families, it could very well be the reflection of deep wounds within the society and those elements in the cultural psyche may have to be healed and refined to address these issues in the long run.

In almost every online newspaper bloggers and many articles in leading newspapers have alleged that Catholic Church is responsible for almost every wars in the history of mankind. When we read the history and especially when we try to read between the lines of history books, it is very clear that the wars were started by some crooked people who were cleaver enough to drag even religion into it and finally put all their blame on religions, including Catholic Church. And they just hid themselves into the deep abbeys of history as centuries pass by. Blaming Catholicism for all the wars in history is as absurd as saying that the war on Iraq was a Christian war on Muslims! But it is as clear as sunlight that it was the bloody oil greed of the West to keep enjoying their cars created Iraq war. But still after 200 years some Dan Brown could "uncover the truth" and say it was Catholic Church who put up that war, because it is the only institution, which survives the test of time (even not any state), and popularly could give the status of a "cult". It is always a fashion to blame a "cult".

I haven't heard any Catholics annoy the Mardi Gras Parade nor requesting the court to allow them to do so. But still the young Catholics who pay their way for their faith party could very well be legally annoyed in this country. Even still they are blamed for intolerance towards those people. No homosexual genes have yet been identified and the concept is not accepted unequivocally in scientific and medical circles yet. So, it may be premature to pressurize Church to make decisions on those issues. The Church is always as compassionate as Jesus - who welcomed everybody into his companionship - to those people but may reserve the right to gently remind them against their behaviour as long as it is not proved otherwise without doubt. The Catholic youth do understand the Church's position.

As many wanted to portray, Biblical God is not a jealous, murderous God. It was the understanding of the God by the humans that went on a transformation as we witness in Bible from Old Testament to New Testament. As Jesus himself made it clear he had come to perfect the law. The nature of God as a loving merciful father is been truly and perfectly revealed in Jesus and the New Testament Bible is a witness to it. There is no point in trying to understand the nature of God without reference to New Testament revelation about Jesus Christ, and every attempt to ignore it is an attempt to misguide masses by feeding half-baked truths.

Another allegation is that Catholic Church is the root cause of the whole AIDS epidemic in the world and especially in Africa. The best practice against AIDS, as everyone would agree, is committed married life as a lifelong union of both the man and woman involved in marriage. With any scientific procedure we can compare the successful rate of "committed married life" and the use of condoms against AIDS and see the conclusions (pretty well we all know what the result would be). And if Catholic Church wants to promote the best option for the Catholic youth and the youth of the world, the youth do understand and respect that stand.

World Youth Day is a wake up call, especially for the youngsters and young couples of Australia to decide in what direction they want to mould their personal life, family, society and their Church. It is a call to be inspired by Jesus and the great Catholics like Francis of Assisi - a true ecologist, Mother Theresa - a true humanitarian or the great Australian educator - Mary McKillop. It is also a call to be inspired by those thousands of cheering happy young faces around Sydney who find their meaning and peace in a loving God and his vibrant Church.

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Jaison Mulerikkal CMI is an Indian Carmelite priest, belonging to the Eastern Catholic rite of Syro-Malabar and a research student at Department of Computer Science, Australian National University. He lives in St Matthew's Parish presbytery, Page, ACT. He can be accessed at his website www.memyviews.com

WYD & Priest sex abuse in the Australain Church

The Australian media has been running a vicious campaign against Catholic Church during WYD (world youth day). They dig up decades old 'priest's sex abuse' cases and trying to put Church on the back-foot. I honestly think that there's a ploy behind it... (and Church authorities have failed to foresee it too)

The Church is not unaware of the sex-scandal issues in the West. The Western church has to fight it's daemons. But what we are witnessing is systematic, biased and out-of-proportionate attempt by the Australian media (especially Fairfax media newspapers (online as well) and ABC television) to humiliate and demoralize the Church in the wake of all good things happening in Sydney. God save Australia!

Here is comment by me on one of their articles in Herald Sun online
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It seems that the media and a section of community (those who oppose Catholic Church for various other reasons) are using priest sex abuse cases as an instrument to destroy the morale of Catholic church in the wake of a great awakening in the society. We all sympathize with the victims and actions must be taken. But it has to be differentiated from what we are witnessing at Sydney at the moment. God bless Australia!

Posted by: Jaison 11:29am today (16th July 2008)
Comment 29 of 32

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/comments/0,22023,24028147-662,00.html

It's been published!

The condom debate - continues

to my previous post (letter to Herald Sun), Lara of Melbourne responded as follows:

HAHAHAHA...you're a "good" Catholic Jaison, of course you believe in "committed married life as a lifelong union of the man and woman involved in marriage", what we're saying is that many of your fellow Youth Day Catholics are not practicing what you are, thusly they require the extra protection afforded by common sense and CONDOMS. It's naive and stupid to think that everyone is going to behave as they should, because God knows they won't - human beings never do. Religion is outdated and science is beginning to prevail, the world is not the innocent place it used to be and sex before marriage and at disgustingly young ages is rife nowadays - Catholics have to get with the program and understand that in today's world, it's better to be SAFE than SORRY. Safe sex is not a joke, Jaison, it's probably saved a lot of people you know from unwanted pregnancies and STDs.

AND HERE IS MY RESPONSE

That's another great joke Lara of Melbourne! Almost every noble civilizations in the world does believe in that Lara - "committed married life as a lifelong union of the man and woman involved in marriage" - its not an invention of Catholic Church. That's why we call those civilizations as civilized. Please dont undermine at least your fellow-Australians. Then the word 'science'. I am not afraid of that. I myself is a research student of science. With any scientific procedure you compare the successful rate of "committed married life" and your condoms against AIDS and bring the conclusions (pretty well we all know what it would be). And if Catholic Church wants to promote the best option for the youth of the world, please respect that. And very sad to learn that you dont believe in the innocence of humanity anymore (and most probably the ideology you represent)! That would be a miserable life. I pity. My prayers

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/comments/0,22023,24003622-662,00.html

World Youth Day condom protest comic, says Catholic Church

There's a World Youth Day condom protest! The Church reply was really funny!

This is my reply to that article in Herald Sun
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I agree with Bishop Fisher. It will be a comedy. I am going to WYD. But I don't really understand the logic of those people who plan to promote "health issues" (as they claim) during WYD. If they are serous about their cause, they should organize different programs or events for the same. Please dont do it at the expense of Pope! (That's the real joke!). And regarding the best practice against AIDS, I would say the best solution is committed married life as a lifelong union of both the man and woman involved in marriage. Without any doubt that would bring the best positive result against AIDS (or any other venereal diseases). The youth of the world (of course of Australia too) deserve the best. So let them distribute a replica "marriage ring" to the youth of the world (as a symbol) to give them best chances against AIDS. YesToPope!

INDIAaaaa!!

It was a pleasant sight to see Kevin Rudd (Australian PM) moving around Manmohan Singh (Indian PM) to get attention at the G8 meeting, even though he pretends to distance himself from India at home (Australia). What a wonderful era that I am living in! (I am studying in Aus, at the moment). Aus will come to India's way (they would rather grab the opportunity) in selling Uranium in the very near future, I'm very sure!

There's a silver lining.. everywhere man!

The Oil prices are sky-rocketing. Now here is a news! Iraq govt.(?) plans to open up their market for foreign oil corporations!

What a happy ending. I Think, the plan of Uncle Sam works well. The stage is perfectly set to explore (exploit) the Iraqi oil. Feeling the pinch of oil price hike NOBODY - no public, no NGOs will question the sale of Iraqi oil! The whole world has been beautifully tamed! Now, it's upto the Big corporations to get into the market and make profit! After all war is a bloody business.

And there's silver lining mate.. even in the oil price hike... The oil corportes can easily get a hold on to Iraqi oil.

I feel for the Iraqi people. They lost their cities and people, now they are going to loose their wealth as well for cheap. They say the Iraqi govt clinches the deal. Who are they.. the puppets of Uncle Sam..

What an achievement!

The news from Daily Telegraph on July 02, 2008 12:00am goes like this:

THE average Australian woman has 13 different sex partners in her life, a major online survey has found.

What an achievement! As one of the readers commented, it is serial monogamy! Or may be deceptive polygamy! Or just way of life!