WYD and the Colonial hang-over

One of the beautiful parts of World Youth Day final Mass was the gospel procession by the Pacific Islanders. I was there, right beside. It was really beautiful, touching (watch it here) . But,... that's a BIG BUT!

The end of the gospel precession really tasted bitter.. The symbolism! The Pacific Islanders 'entrust the Gospel' to a European convoy (at least all looked like Europeans). Then they takes it to the alter, as the Islanders passively look at it! Black and White!

Just reminded everybody of the new Cadbury ad on the TV. The Pacific Islanders wage war over coffee and the Emperor wins, only to see that European colonials came to take the throne.

Dont think that I am too critical. But there are things to be fixed up. In God, there's no race. When we do a liturgy for WYD, which is supposed to celebrate the universality of Church, these things should get right. The powerful symbolism could have all changed, if we had, at least a black or brown person among the convoy who received Gospel from the Pacific Islanders.

Tail piece: During the Saturday vigil, one of the Indian young pilgrims told me. "Look father they pray in almost every language on earth. But why not in any of Indian languages?". He was right. The representation of Indian subcontinental languages were almost nil, except for one of the prayers of the faithful during the final Mass in SriLankan Sinhalees.

I want to answer RIGHT to my fellow young pilgrims from Asia next time. After all Jesus was an Asian and Asia is the cradle of Christianity!

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!

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

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!

xt3.com - The WYD Social Networking Site

visit my Web home

I am very happy that WYD Sydney is coming out with its social networking site - xt3.com! (Christ in 3rd Millennium).

However, I feel that the ways of God are mysterious. In the first week of May 2007, I had a meeting with Mr Paolo Damante, Assistant Project Officer, DID Melbourne as per the direction of Bishop Christopher Prowse. Since I was a postgraduate student of IT at RMIT, Bishop Christopher asked me to give some creative ideas regarding WYD website (basically his intention was to look into DID site). Since I was aware of the possibilities of an Internet virtual community along with WYD08, I shared this idea with Paolo with allpossible details at that time. But nothing heard for quite a long time.

So, I prepared a 'one-page proposal' and send it as an email to Bp Anthony Fischer, chairman of WYD committee on 16th July 2007. On reply I got the above letter. It says that they were at that time finalizing plans to establish an online catholic community.

I am happy! It has been realized...

Holy Spirit could inspire several people simultaneously with the same idea!

My WYD Dream!

go to HOME

I've submitted a proposal for a WYD Virtual Community in Internet to Bishop Anthony Fisher, the Chair of WYD 08 Sydney, last Monday 16th July on the feast of Mount Carmel. I haven't received any response yet. It's dead, I presume. But the dream is very powerful and much needed for the Church, I believe. But many a time, Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. I believe that the HS works also through Church Authorities. So, I leave it for the time being... Let Him decide. But here is my one page proposal:
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Project Proposal
WYD Internet Virtual Community

What
• An Internet virtual community like www.orkut.com (of Google) or www.tagged.com for WYD.
• Half a million plus young adults who register for WYD will constitute the primary members of the proposed virtual community.
• The members can login to the community from WYD website http://www.wyd2008.org.
• The community can be opened to the public and expects exponential growth in membership by capitalizing on the primary members’ commitment and the millions of hits received by WYD website.
• Will be the first Catholic virtual community in the Net and Church will control its content.

Why
• Global database for priestly/religious vocations. The best of Catholic young adults who have the zeal to participate in WYD is given a platform to come together to form a community. Since Church controls the content of the community, different dioceses and religious groups can advertise, expose their spirituality and track down young adults who have potential priestly/religious vocation.
• The fun way of preparation for WYD. The members of the virtual community can get to know each other, communicate with each other, share their views, organize travel and accommodation and plan a lot of surprises (Eg: meet someone who became a friend through the virtual community, during WYD) before the actual event.
• WYD committee can make use of the community for orientation/faith formation of WYD participants through its discussion forums, internal community/group formation etc.
• Will be the most effective follow up program of WYD. This community will carry the spirit and its members to the following WYDs.

How
• Will develop the required software, deal with all networking issues and will launch the community in the WYD website within 90 days of the commencement of the project.
• A group of 5 software engineering graduates who have successfully completed a similar industry project is ready and willing to take part in this project under my guidance.

Fr Jaison Paul Mulerikkal CMI
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Priory
Middle Park, VIC 3206
0433 893593 (mob)
jaisonmpaul@gmail.com