This month, MAGNET interviews BISHOP LUMEN MONTEIRO of Agartala, who is also the outgoing Chairman of Caritas India, the CBCI agency for providing aid to the needy. His awareness of the plight of the neediest and the ways in which the Church is reaching out will be an eye-opener for many of us.
As a Bishop and as the outgoing Chairman of Caritas India, you will be very aware of the needs of people and of the best ways of helping. What do you see as the steps the Church (in general and in India) needs to take to tackle to present crisis?
The Catholic Church is unified in its response to the call of human suffering. Caritas India, under the guidance of the Church leadership, is dialoguing with civil authorities, inter-faith leaders, regional forums, partner organisations, NGOs, CSOs, and other people of goodwill to determine the need and respond accordingly. Generally speaking, Caritas India’s focus is on the environment, migrants, marginal farmers, unorganised workers, and people suffering from other morbidities. But the magnitude of the present crisis requires a concerted focus of the collaborative effort. Hence, as the Executive Director Caritas India says, “Apart from the short-term relief efforts, Caritas is planning for the long-term response, keeping in mind the needs of the populations, local factors such as access to affected communities, and the capacity of local partners. The efforts will focus on health, education, livelihood, and skill-building of the marginalised population affected by Covid-19.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the rich and the poor, but it is the poor who have suffered the most. The poor are hungry, millions are unemployed, the economy is in free fall and people are worried and asking when it will all end. No one knows that! The challenge is for us to embrace the power of goodness, to build up our strength, to be resilient, compassionate, just, caring, sharing and helping each other. The ‘Karuna Warriors,’ as I like to call them, have waged a ‘war of love’ on the Coronavirus by reaching out to the neediest.
The impact of the lockdown is bound to be most severe for the vulnerable workers, especially poor, informal-sector workers, raising concerns for their survival. Labourers are pushed to the wall. Workers are staring at the toughest time in their lives. As it is said, more people can die of hunger than of the COVID pandemic. Disruption of the routine, social isolation and the pandemic itself are undoubtedly taking a toll on the well-being and mental health of people. There are also cases of violence, particularly against women.
International economists and Caritas International are predicting severe food shortages in several countries, especially food-importing countries of Africa. What should be done to prevent famine?
I can’t say much about this, since I do not know the actual data. But I will quickly add that Caritas India has as one of its focus areas food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture. We have been moving toward a more socially just, economically viable, and environmentally sound agriculture in alliance with civil society organizations. Caritas India’s focus has always been on the poor and excluded.
Another area that Caritas India took up which I like to highlight is Volunteerism. With the long history and tradition of volunteerism in India, Government of India’s Digital India Volunteer Programme (DigiSevak) under the aegis of Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology, is promoting volunteerism. Many I/NGOs engage volunteers in social action, developing sensitivity towards social causes and responsibility towards people and the planet. Volunteering is a powerful expression of a people-centred approach to development. There are many ways in which Caritas India promoted volunteerism. Th best examples are: ASHAKIRANAM, the cancer care campaign in Kerala; EZHUVOM IYAKKAM in Tamil Nadu; SNEHA HASTHAM in AP and TS; and ÇAN SURVIVE in Goa. The Cancer Care Campaign is today is spread across eighty-nine Dioceses and doing much good.
What are some of your most encouraging experiences as Chairman of Caritas India?
Through the programmes supported by Caritas across Dioceses in India, I had a chance to understand the plight of the people, especially in the rural areas of the country. In fact, I came up with this idea of ‘FROM FILE TO FIELD,’ which gave me a first-hand experience of seeing and interacting with people, whom we generally call ‘beneficiaries,’ in their own settings. Because of the long distances from Agartala and my own pastoral commitments in the diocese, it was not easy to implement the plan. But I must say that in my eight years’ tenure I covered 108 Dioceses in India! It involved sacrifices, no doubt, but it was a labour of love that enriched me.
My association with Caritas India has been a great milestone in my life’s journey, giving me a lot of opportunities to reflect, explore, and take action to enhance our contribution towards changing the situations of the marginalized communities in different parts of our country. My passion for visiting the field provided rich interactions with the community. These have been inspiring moments, meeting with simple people who have their own wisdom. I certainly received more than I gave.
I also experienced how the Catholic Church is in solidarity with the poor through its partners at the national, regional, diocesan and parish levels and the various apostolates, commissions and religious congregations. I experienced this during the Kashmir earthquake, the super cyclones, the Tsunami, the floods in Kerala, Bihar and NE, and presently with the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen people demonstrate tremendous compassion and support during these very troubled times—a very encouraging experience indeed.
Although we (Catholics) are only 1.6% of the Indian population, our contribution and impact in education, medical ministry and social work are far beyond what a small minority can do. What are some of the things the Church in India is doing well?
In addition to the education and health ministries, which are expansive and known to everyone, our social apostolate through Caritas India and its diocesan partners is done with less visibility all over the country. It has been largely unnoticed, except in a few places. One reason for this could be that we do not advertise our work, believing in the Lord’s words, ‘the left hand should not know what the right is doing’. This can be especially said of the social apostolate. From direct experience, I know that what is being done is tremendous. But in a huge country like India, where the Christian community is such a tiny minority, our interventions are often minuscule and we are not always noticed or recognised nationally. But at the local levels there is visibility, recognition and collaboration with the Government departments.
As for what we are doing well: I think that we do all things well. Some of the areas of our involvement include: justice issues, environmental issues, action against human trafficking, human rights issues, disaster mitigation, organic farming.
How can we do even better? What do we need to change or give up or add?
We are reaching out to the unreached. This journey has been quite different, difficult, and unique in many ways. Caritas India has been engaged with different multi-layer and multi-stakeholder programs aimed at the prevention, protection and promotion of the rights of people. I feel that this is our mission. Living this mission today means to constantly overcome divisions based on languages, ethnicities, cultures and religions, as well as the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor. Today, the mission needs to be expressed through solidarity, outreach to the poor, dialogue and sharing.
You are a religious and a bishop. How do you see the presence and contribution of religious in the Indian Church and society? What are we doing well?
Religious are a great ‘force’ in the Indian Church. Their commitment is exemplary. I am thinking of the hundreds of Religious Sisters for example, who work in very difficult situations with exemplary dedication.
When it comes to formal education, however, the story is different. It was seen as a good way to enter into rural and poor sections of India. In the establishment phase, many religious congregations found this a good apostolate. But I think what was meant to be a ‘means’ may have become an ‘end’ in itself. Too much focus is put on improving our schools. Competition with one another made many Institutions inward-looking. We begin to focus only on “my school should be the best” and use all our energy for academic excellence. As Pope Francis says, “religious are women and men who should awaken the world by their prophetic life. They have to leave the nest that contains them and be sent to the frontiers of the world, avoiding the temptations to be domesticated.” This is the most concrete way to imitate the Lord. What does it mean to awaken or stir up the world, and how do we do it in our Schools?
Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil SDB, Emeritus of Guwahati, has this profound thought: “We are accustomed to evaluating our works in terms of their calculable results, not their sign value. But, in the final analysis, it is the sign value that makes the difference. Jesus’ works of healing and feeding pointed beyond the immediate benefit it conferred (e.g., being the light of the world, bread of life, etc.,). If our works of education, health care and social transformation have no sign value, they have lost their purposefulness; they become a soul–less service. It is the sign value that makes the difference in the long term.” The purpose of missionary activity is not so much to “do something for others” as to “transform others into doers”—active participants in the saving work of God.
What do we need to do better?
We can always do more and better. As long as we see ourselves as a dynamic organisation, we will have to pause, evaluate, make new plans, and move on with new vigour and vitality. In Caritas India, our humanitarian aid response for the survivors of the natural disasters has increased tremendously, putting a lot more pressure on our team, who have always been the first to reach the disaster-affected populations and organize the relief services, sometimes even forgetting their own families.
Like any human being, you will face moments of doubt, fear, aloneness and confusion. What helps you to find strength, peace and meaning? What helps you to be a happy and positive human being, religious and bishop?
Saint Mother Teresa once said, “To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.” The oil that gives me strength and keeps me positive and peaceful comes from the Lord in my daily meeting with Him in meditation.
Moreover, I always wish to live as a positive human being even though my life is not always a bed of roses! I have experienced hardships and difficulties. But I have come a long way from my understanding that hardships mean God not caring for me. On the contrary, as St. Paul says, “we boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God’s approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, for God has poured out his love into our hearts.” I feel that this awareness is what has given me the energy to stay positive.
An example given by Harriet Arrow also provides an answer to your question. She says, “The fir tree has no choice about starting its life in the crack of a rock. What nourishment it finds is often meagre, and above the ground appears a twisted trunk, grown in irregular spurts, marred by dead and broken branches, and bent far to one side by the battering winds. Yet at the top some twigs hold their green needles year after year, giving proof that—misshapen, imperfect, scarred—the tree lives.” The analogy is clear. By accepting the facts of our own lives, we mature into beings of joy alongside our difficulties.
Another thing that helps me to be happy and positive is humour. Shusaku Endo, author of the classic Japanese novel, Silence, was a Catholic who didn’t always find his native land, Japan, sympathetic to his faith. He was misunderstood but kept his balance and good heart by placing a high value on levity. It was his way of integrating his faith with his own experience of occasional personal failure and his way of keeping his perspective on a culture which misunderstood him. Levity, he believed, makes faith liveable. He is right. Levity is what makes faith livable, because humour and irony give us the perspective we need to forgive ourselves and others for our weaknesses and mistakes. When we are too serious, there is no forgiveness, least of all for ourselves.
In his book, A Rumour of Angels, Peter Berger looked at the question of humour philosophically. In humour, he says, we touch the transcendent. “To be able to laugh at a situation, no matter how dire or tragic, shows that we are in some way above that situation, that there is something in us that is not imprisoned by that situation, or any situation.”
Mgr Lumen Monteiro is the Bishop of Agartala, as well as the outgoing Chairman of Caritas India.
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