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Here is the story of a young man’s search for happiness. He had everything that most people can only wish for—educated and well-to-do parents, an IIT degree, tops jobs, freedom, money, friends, travel. But that is not where he found what his heart was looking for.—Editor

“Who doesn’t want to be happy?” These are familiar lines, aren’t they? We all long for happiness. Often, happiness gets translated in terms of money, position, job security, a good spouse, a wonderful family and so on. The norms one puts for one’s happiness depend on individuals, and it varies from person to person. Being a wanderlust person, I have travelled far and wide, both internally and externally. I would like to describe my story as a journey in pursuit of happiness.

My journey began three decades ago. I was privileged to have a wonderful family. I belonged to a family of four—father, mother, a younger sister and me. I was also blessed to savour the love and care of grandparents, both paternal and maternal. My father used to tell me, “Whatever you become and wherever you are, be a good human being; nothing else matters.” My mother often reminded me never to disgrace God. I am proud that I still cling to these golden words. I was a bit shy. My sister, being an outgoing and altruistic person, taught me the importance and depth of interpersonal relationships.

Hailing from a small parish belonging to the Syro-Malankara community, we were regular for Sunday masses. In fact, I longed for it, because those days we had mass only on Sundays because of the lack of priests. My grandparents inculcated a deep Eucharistic devotion in me. I saw them making their confession invariably every Sunday and receiving Holy Communion with utmost devotion. Moreover, they saw to it that I too am on the right track. At the age of eleven, I became an altar boy. No one invited me or trained me, but one day it so happened that there was no one to serve and I took it as a chance and continued to do so.

Three Longings—and a Full Life

Right from my childhood, I have longed for only three things: to serve at the altar (initially as an altar boy), to travel (preferably on a window seat near the driver) and to drive. I had a normal schooling. I won’t dare to say that those were the best days of my life,  for the reason that it failed to create a deep impression in me. Needless to say, I am not a fan of our education system. It keeps feeding pupils and fails to empower them. The list of Nobel laureates from India, the second most populous country in the world, will substantiate my claim. I was just part of the normal routine and ritual called education and I could only brag about passing out with flying colours and thus securing my higher studies.

But I was blessed in another way—having wonderful friends. Though only a few, they were remarkable. We were never a gang nor a mob following the wind of our childhood and adolescent days, but we were into ideas and ideologies (my philosophy of life originated there and not in my philosophy classes). It was also a ritual those days to ask about a child’s ambition. I was bombarded with this question quite often, “Hey, Abin, what you want to become?” Anticipated answers were doctor or engineer. But I told them “Hmm, I want to become a driver, a race driver.”

For any Keralite student, class X is crucial. Since you are Catholic, you can always expect a question: “Do want to join the seminary and become a priest?” I too was bombarded with this question. My heart told me that you will do well as a priest, but the gut told me no. I went with my gut, and I still have no regret over that. Later on, I came to know that everyone in my family and parish expected a “Yes” from me. Thereafter, I tailed the trend and joined for science group and eventually ended up studying engineering.

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Abraham Abin Thomas SDB

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Recently I visited one of our communities, where a group of boys who had finished the 12^th standard were undergoing a year of orientation programmes in preparation for entering the novitiate.  The superior of the community told me that, in spite of all the efforts made by him and the other members of the staff, the students were not making much progress intellectually and in their studies.  I was quite surprised to hear that, since the institution was well equipped with all the infrastructure that was needed and had also a rather qualified staff. While talking to the priest in charge of studies in that institution, he told me that the superior was a very good farmer and much interested in farming.  So, irrespective of whether it was class time or study time, he would take the boys to the farm and make them do all kinds of work under the pretext that the boys should be given an all-round formation.  Therefore, the boys did not get much time to study.  They did not also feel that study was important, since study time was sacrificed for work.  The superior did not pay much attention to the opinions expressed by the other staff members.

            In the last two months, we have been dealing with some guidelines for giving corrections.  Last month we talked about the importance of having a win-win approach.  This month, we shall talk about a simple technique for analysing a problem and finding out its root cause, so that steps can be taken to remedy the situation.  It is known as the “Five Whys Technique.”  This is basically a technique for solving problems.  We are applying it here to the context of giving corrections.   Through giving corrections, we are actually trying to “solve” a problem.

Asking More Whys

            The 5 Whys Technique consists in stating a problem and asking why it happened.  We have to make sure that the answer we give is objective and is not based on our biases or prejudices.  The question ‘why’ is repeated four more times.  As we keep asking the question ‘why’ we will arrive at the root cause, the real cause of the problem.  Once the root cause is found, we can take steps to remedy the situation.

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Fr Jose Kuttianimattathil SDB

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“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’ (Jeremiah 29:11)

I believe that this verse was made specifically for my life, starting from the time of my conception.

I was born to a multilingual, intercultural and interreligious family. My mother was a Malayali Catholic and my father was a Bengali Hindu. While growing up, I was exposed to both the religions and had a neutral mind set on who God was. My most favourite person in the world was my father. He was like the centre of my life.

On October 3, 1999, I lost my father to a tragic traffic accident—a head-on collision. With that, things began to go downhill. Being an elder sibling, I was perceived to be the most understanding one who would by default adjust to the situation then. My sister was given a lot of attention and fuss, as she was only three at that time. All felt she would miss her father more. But the actual truth was just the reverse. I, who had experienced my father’s love and affection in person, missed him more. The sudden change in scenario made me more jealous towards my sister. This jealousy slowly took the form of hatred in my heart. I used to hit her and was very impatient with her.

That’s when we entered the gates of Divine Retreat Centre in 2000 and experienced God’s love for the first time in our lives. I benefited especially from the children’s retreat. My spiritual progress in God’s love was a slow and steady healing process, which took around fifteen years. Every year we used to go meticulously for summer retreats to Divine, and each year I would overcome an inner wound and grow more in faith. But I still found myself unworthy to serve him. Being a part of any ministry never occurred to me. I thought that only the holy ones with gifts and visions are called serve the Lord.

In the 2014 power youth conference, Fr Rob Galea from Australia spoke about the ministry of St Peter. He said that Peter was the most ineligible member among disciples to be a leader, but on him stands the foundation of the catholic church. Moved by this awareness, I started my ministry service and joined the Chennai Magnificat in 2015. While being a volunteer, I learnt how to do intercessory prayers and see God’s will in each and everything that happens around me. Being a part of the children’s ministry came as a surprise, as my past history with my baby sister was not very pleasant. Then again, who would understand the pain and inner wounds of a child more than me? My patience and gratitude increased as I praised God with the little ones. As years progressed, I was a part of collecting prayer requests from Chennai Magnificat and sending it to Divine Retreat Centre. While doing so, I used to pray over each and every request and type them in my laptop.

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Nibedita Dey

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In the previous issue (July 2022) of MAGNET, I presented some of the challenges involved in helping formees to grow in emotional maturity. In this article I shall present ways and means to enhance this maturity, especially by helping to meet their basic emotional need for relatedness.

Fear of Relationships

Relatedness (the need for belongingness and connectedness, to feel accepted and loved) is fostered through close relationships or friendships and through an environment that encourages the fulfilment of these needs.

While religious settings tend to encourage good relationships with people in general, exhorting formees to be kind, generous, serviceable, forgiving, etc., they have also promoted a strong suspicion of close relationships.

After I had written about the subject in 2010, a Sister Provincial wrote to me as follows.

“Dear Fr Jose, I read your article in the July-August issue of the CRI Magazine, on Religious Formation. On the whole, it is a fine article. But I disagree with your statements on relatedness. I think that will affect Religious Formation adversely. Too much psychology instead of spirituality will do no good in religious life. If you spread such ideas, you may be responsible for the loss of many vocations. The relatedness must be between Jesus and the formee. Only then the religious formation will take root. When I read the article, I felt sorry, so I am writing this. Hope the Holy Spirit will guide you.”

I think there are many in religious life and formation who have held, and I guess continue to, hold a similar view. However, in the recent past, a gradual change in view has been happening.  The pervasive fear of “particular friendships” has diminished. But vestiges still remain. Any budding friendship among candidates, especially one that involves a person of the other gender, used to, and continues to, be frowned upon. At the National Conference on Religious and Priestly Formation held in New Delhi in 2013, a Sister who had many years’ experience as a formator acknowledged: “We are still very judgmental about heterosexual friendships.” Such negative attitudes stand in the way of candidates’ meeting their basic emotional need for relatedness and stunts their healthy development.

Intimacy: Right & Wrong Understandings

An aspect of relatedness that needs to be rightly understood is intimacy. It refers to a relationship where I can be myself, where I can disclose my innermost thoughts, feelings and desires, without fear or embarrassment.

Intimacy can be experienced without a romantic or genital involvement, although it needs to be romantic or genital in some cases, for instance, in courtship and marriage. In a good marriage, there is both emotional and genital intimacy. In the case of celibates, what we renounce is genital intimacy, not our ability or the need for deep and transparent relationships. According to psychoanalyst and developmental theorist Erik Erikson, intimacy is the crucial developmental task of young adulthood (18 to 35 years). Most candidates are at this stage of development. Hence, great harm is done by cutting off their opportunities for developing close relationships with peers of both sexes.

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FR JOSE PARAPPULLY SDB

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(Excerpts of this essay were used when I was the keynote speaker at the International Association for Counselling Conference in July 2016)

In the Los Angeles County Jail there are no bright colours. The benches, walls, doors, are all painted in drab shades of grey, green and black. Colours are only used to distinguish one prisoner from another, thus indicating how one is expected to behave. The ones in dark blue uniforms are the inmates from the general population and could be “less problematic”; the ones in light blue are the gays and transsexuals and should never, under any circumstance, mix with the dark blues; there’s light green for those who clean the premises and run errands; orange for the maximum security ones who are always to be escorted by the guards, brown for those in the jail hospital; yellow for those who are allowed to clean the garden and walkways surrounding the jai. For a time I used to meet inmates wearing a crimson coloured uniform: I was told they were the ones who had already finished their sentence but, because of the sexual nature of their crime, the authorities were wary of them going back to the streets.

Colours give life.

Colours bring joy.

Colours give meaning to life.

No Colours; Only Black

Red warns us of danger; a person can turn red with rage or passion. Green gives us permission to cross the road, it is the symbol of hope, but at the same time is associated with envy. A white flag in war means surrender, maybe because when scared, one loses all the colour from the face and looks white. Blue reminds us of the sea and the sky, while in some cultures black is the colour of death and mourning. But both colours are related to sadness and depression. Cowardice and the colour yellow are complementary.

Colours announce spring.

In jail there is no spring.

In jail there are no seasons.

Both light and air are controlled and manipulated.

In fact there is not even a window to let in God’s light.

Time is measured in terms of “when” —

When the inmates are fed breakfast, lunch and supper.

When the guards twice daily count the “bodies.”

When the inmates appear in court.

When the visits are allowed.

While I was working in jail, black dominated my art. I could not create anything with bright colours. The medium I was using was white charcoal on black paper. The Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky stated: “A totally dead silence . . . a silence with no possibilities has the inner harmony of black. Black is something burnt out, like ashes on a funeral pyre, something motionless like a corpse. The silence of black is the silence of death.” (Wassily Kandinsky, 1977. Concerning the Spiritual in Art)

 No colour is darker than black and yet black is not even a colour: like a sponge it absorbs all the colours of the spectrum. There are no darker stories than the ones I witnessed to and heard in prison, but at the same time there existed an intensity, an anxiety, a yearning for imbibing and absorbing all the colours of life in such stories.

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Brother Carmel Duca MC

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What greater mental assault one can go through than when we tell a person that he is going to be killed in two weeks, in three days, or “tomorrow will be the last Tuesday of your life here….” These men/women on death row have nightmares everyday: the guards are coming, it’s my time, I say “No, no, no!” I struggle and I wake up. I look around. I am in my cell. It was a dream. But…they will certainly come for me, soon. We may have seen movies about death row prisoners and the death penalty. The death row prisoner is brought to the death chamber, the jailor looks at the time, nods his head and then the hangman pulls a lever and the body gets suspended in the air and a person is executed. Is this what we see in movies? Is this the same in real life?

How is a person executed? How is the death warrant signed? What happens just before an execution? What is said to the convict? These are questions that may rise in our minds when we talk about the death penalty. But my question is: What does he/she go through as he/she knows that he/she will be executed in a few hours time? What happens to a convict just before the hanging? Once the date of the hanging is decided, the convict is taken out of the death cell and put in another cell. How does this human being spend the rest of his days and hours? What do their families go through?

The death row prisoners’ only hope will be the review petition, the curative petition and the mercy petition which will be with the President of India. The moment the petition is dismissed, a black warrant will be issued by the Patiala House Court. This is the last step before the final death sentence is carried out. After the signing of the black warrant, the court decides the date and time of the execution by looking at the suggestions and preparations. The death row prisoner is allowed to see the person he wants to meet for the last time. He is picked up around four in the morning of the execution day and asked to bathe and wear new clothes. One can imagine the agonizing moments the convict goes through. Usually, when someone dies, we bathe them and make them wear a new dress. But, here it is just the opposite. A human being prepares himself to be killed, to be hanged as he bathes himself and wears a new dress. Imagine how a human being can walk towards the death chamber! Sometimes the convict is carried by the prison guards, as the condemned person cannot walk.

Death Penalty: What Does It Achieve?

India has carried out eight executions since 2000, the last having been in 2020. Jyothi Singh Pandey was a young woman. She loved her parents. She loved her brothers. She loved cinema and life. She was training to be a physiotherapist and dreaming of being a doctor. Her dreams all were shattered on 16 December 2012. On March 20, 2020, Mukesh, Akshay Kumar Singh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar were executed for the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of Jyoti Singh (Nirbhaya). Prison Ministry India volunteers from Delhi tried their level best for restorative justice by meeting the victim’s parents.

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Sr Lini Sheeja MSC

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Assessment of an organization does not depend on finance alone. There are so many other factors involved. However, here I look at the subject mostly from the finance point-of-view to help us prepare a general “medical report” for an organization.  Depending on the nature and gravity of the matter and its immediate or future consequences, we can forecast the financial non-sustainability of an organization as “critical,” “serious” or “cautionary” in nature, wherein “critical” would mean the “patient” is in ICU and hence needs immediate emergency attention, “serious” would mean the “patient” is serious and needs immediate attention and “cautionary”  would mean the “patient” has to be attended to sooner or later.

 A.CRITICAL

Here we study an organization from the statutory point-of-view. Laxity in any of the statutory or legal related points would mean the organization is critical, resulting in dangerous consequences, unless immediate attention is given to it on a priority basis and the issue is attended to. The financial sustainability or the very survival of the organization can be ascertained by asking the following finance related questions:

1. Does the organization comply with all norms and statutory compliances related to income tax, FCRA, TDS, GST, PF, PT? Here it would mean following the norms of the IT-related provisions, such as the limit in cash transactions, accumulation u/s 11(2), filing the income tax returns, renewal of the 12A(B), 80G and FCRA, norms regarding TDS deductions and filing of returns, norms of FCRA and filing of returns, norms of GST and filing of returns where applicable, etc. It may be good to remember that any laxity in any of these statutory compliances will result in paying a heavy penalty or withdrawal of the tax exemption provisions. Thousands of organizations previously registered under FCRA have lost their registration due to sheer non-compliance of the statutory obligations.
2. Is the organization paying its property taxes regularly, or are there pending bills? Not paying the required property tax is a serious matter. If not paid regularly, the dues with fine get accumulated. If, even after the “recovery notice” or “red notice,” the arrears are not paid, then the civic body could “seize” the property of the defaulter. The same is true of the utility bills like the electricity bill, which, if not paid on time, will result in termination of the electrical connection. Such a situation will certainly have a bad effect on the reputation of the organization.
3. Is cashflow adequate to support operations? Some organizations are faced with a severe cash crunch so much they are not able to pay for their normal operations/activities, such as vendor payments, salaries, taxes, etc. Any sign of inability to pay for the expenses would mean that the organization is facing a serious financial crisis. Unless the expenses are kept under control (within the level of income), the organization may be heading towards bankruptcy.
4. Are the funds going down gradually? Is the level of corpus coming down? A periodic check on the status of the existing funds is another parameter to check the financial sustainability of the organization. The gradual decrease in the level of the existing funds or the corpus is a sign that, unless checked, will result in a serious consequence, threatening the very existence of the organization.

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Fr Alex G., SJ

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He has earned a rare epithet which nobody else seems to have: ‘a peace hero.’ How did he become a peace hero? Decades of tireless, committed struggle for peace, justice and disarmament have earned this honour for Bruce Kent, who died on 8 June, 2022, at his home in London, two weeks before his ninety-third birthday. When he died, he was Mr. Bruce Kent. But for many years he was well-known as Father Bruce Kent.

            Bruce Kent was born in 1929 in south-east London to Canadian parents. His father was a Presbyterian, while his mother was a devout Roman Catholic. He spent his early years in Canada. When he returned, he studied at the Jesuit Stonehurst College and later at Oxford, for a law degree. He then did two years of national service as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment. It was at this time he heard the call to become a priest.

When he told his parents of his decision, his mother was happy, but his father was not. After six years of seminary training, he was ordained a priest in 1958 at Westminster Cathedral. That was the year when the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was born. As a young priest in various London parishes, he came across as a genial, smart and helpful person. Cardinal Heenan made him his secretary. Soon Fr Bruce became the Catholic chaplain at London University. The title of ‘Monsignor’ came soon.

At the Second Vatican Council, he listened to Archbishop Thomas Roberts SJ of Bombay speak about how war and poverty—how peace and prosperity—are connected. He visited India and saw the cruel face of poverty. He understood the vital importance of peace for human wellbeing and how proliferation of weapons incited conflicts that destroyed lives and livelihoods.  He began to go on a pilgrimage to the native village of the Austrian farmer, now a Blessed, Franz Jagerstatter, whose deep faith made him refuse to fight in Hitler’s war and so made him a martyr. Fr Bruce Kent became a peace activist.

Unlike Cardinal Heenan, who did not appreciate the activism of his former secretary, Cardinal Basil Hume, who succeeded Heenan, was more tolerant. Fr Bruce realized that the good news that Jesus announced was in direct conflict with war, weapons, particularly nuclear weapons. He saw his life’s mission was to lead a people’s struggle against the ever-increasing proliferation of weapons., including nuclear weapons.

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Fr M A Joe Antony SJ

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A Physician’s Perspective on Treating Rare Diseases in Children

Let me start with a true story.

A hopeful young couple loved each other and married outside their caste and language boundaries. They were a middle-class, educated couple who were confident that they could make a life together with opportunities in a big city.

A baby was born to them, and slowly the husband and wife were able to convince their respective families to lay their differences aside and come together, as they themselves had demonstrated it was possible. All was well till the elders in the family noted that at six months age the baby was a bit slow and not doing the things that one would expect for its age.

At this point I was consulted about this developmental delay in my capacity as a paediatric neurologist — someone who cares for babies and children affected with diseases of the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles. A delay in development is a sure warning sign that there is always something causing the deviation in normal development and milestones.

A Rare Disease—and Fatal

Often the primary suspicion would be to look for any problems within the brain, and that is indeed what we proceeded to do in this instance when we did an MRI scan of the brain. We detected abnormalities that further led us to an unexpected diagnosis of the rare Menkes disease, which is universally fatal in the first few years of life as the rare existing treatments fail to make meaningful changes.

Day in and day out we deal with children and families affected with rare diseases of the brain and nervous system. This is a glimpse into the lives of families thus affected as well as of those of us who treat them.

The first thing that would strike our mind normally would be, “How can babies get brain problems?” Usually, one would not be wrong to think thus, because in the normal course of events diseases affecting the brain — such as stroke — are often lifestyles disease, caused by the choices one makes, such as what one eats, how much one exercises or even one’s habits, such as smoking.

But these little ones have not seen enough of life to have these kinds of issues. So how can a new-born baby have a stroke? Yet this is what we see and treat every day, and these are oftentimes caused by rare genetic diseases that might make the blood stickier than usual, causing the clot to form easily and thus throw a stroke by blocking a blood vessel inside the brain. We mostly see infants and little ones suffering from rare diseases, eighty per cent of which are caused by genetics. Contrary to what is often generally believed, one does not need to have a family history to suffer from these rare genetic diseases.

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Dr Ann Agnes Mathew

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This month’s interview is with Sr Clare DSP (Daughter of St Paul), who felt happy to meet God and share His love in different countries, especially through media ministry. I want to thank Ms Janina Gomes, herself an experienced writer, who conducted this and five other interviews we have published in MAGNET.–Editor

1.What made you want to be a religious? Why did you join a congregation engaged in media ministry?

My vocation to religious life showed itself early in life. Coming from a deeply Christian family, I was actively involved in church activities and steadfast in attending catechism classes on Sundays in church and in school on weekdays. I particularly loved the catechism classes taught by Sisters, as I enjoyed the many stories they told. Among them were stories of courage, sacrificing love and painful renunciations undertaken by friends and acquaintances who had already entered this heroic path. I looked up to them and told them that one day I too would join them.  The Sisters also painted lovely pictures of far-away countries living in darkness where the light of the Gospel had not reached. The people had not even heard the name of Jesus and his love for all peoples. This made me sad. Missionaries were needed to go to spread the Good News of Jesus. That is where my missionary vocation was born.

Media mission is another story. Back then, I did not know that there were many congregations and as many Charisms. All I wanted was to be a missionary. I spoke to the parish priest about my desire. Years went by. When I was in my final year of school, the priest sent word about two missionary sisters from Bombay coming to recruit members for their congregation. The sisters told us in brief about their media ministry which at that time went right above my head. I did not know anything about the media or how one can use it for the apostolate. The sisters accepted me, and the date was set for my departure to Bombay.

2. What are the main things you learnt from your training?

The group of aspirants was bombarded with information of various kinds. Many of us were coming out of our village homes for the first time and we could communicate with each other only in our mother tongue. Along with learning English. we were taught the basics of religious life, of our particular congregation and mission. Very enlightening and enriching were the lessons about our founders—Blessed James Alberione and Venerable Thecla Merlo—how God guided them and gifted them with a specific Charism according to the need of the hour (end of the 20^th century and the beginning of 21^st).  The spirituality and mission of the Daughters of St. Paul can be summed up in two short phrases: Live Christ and give Christ, sharing in the evangelizing mission of the Church through the media.

 At Amruthavani communication centre in Secunderabad, the training course, called “Communication for Church Personnel” was somewhat theoretical and technical. We were taught how to pass on messages to various audiences through the media, mainly radio and television.

I was then sent to Rome for a course. “Formation of Formators.” Members of different congregations shared with us their experience of forming young women to be what the Church and congregations want them to be.

3. You served as a missionary in Africa for nineteen years. Can you summarize your work there briefly?

After my arrival in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, I took time to learn Swahili, the local language. With regard to the apostolate, I found that the activities were much the same as in India, but on a smaller scale, i.e., diffusion through the Book Centre and parish displays. I recall with great joy and satisfaction two activities that we initiated in my time. We recorded parish choirs and produced audio cassettes. The people received them with much joy, because it was the first time recorded religious audio cassettes were available in Tanzania. The second:  we transformed a vacant garage adjacent to the Book Centre into a video library where we stocked wholesome videos. This was yet another initiative which the religious and laity alike appreciated.

In Kenya, we set up a publishing house and published works of African authors. The African Bible, which was translated into other languages, like Swahili, Portuguese and French, is popular in their respective nations. Eventually we published The Divine Office and The Daily Missal. An activity that is well appreciated in Kenya is setting up of small Book Centres in parishes and training the personnel to run them. Now the sisters are very much into the use of the social media for evangelization.

When we arrived in Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, we faced a serious challenge. Seminaries were packed with students, but they had no text books. The few copies available were imported from Europe or America, which were beyond their means. So, they photocopied large volumes, like the Jerome Biblical Commentary, Christian Ethics, The Christian Faith, etc. We ordered huge quantities of these books from India, which were so much cheaper. Then we visited the seminaries carrying with us truckloads of books. Now there is a Pauline publishing house in Nigeria too. Neighbouring countries, like Ghana and Cameroon, also profited from our outreach mission.

4. You were a provincial superior. What are the priorities for a religious superior today? And the main challenges?

Of the many challenges facing religious superiors today, I shall briefly dwell on two or three.

• Authenticity is number one. Not only living consecrated life authentically, but also inculcating in the members the values of consecrated life by living in a counter-cultural manner. Those who see us must be able to sense something different; they must see Christ in us. Our life must resemble the Christian community of the first century, loving and sharing: See how they love one another. Otherwise, there is no witness value.
• The superior is expected to be an agent of unity. She/he has the task of building bridges. When divisions based on language, caste, race, place of origin, etc.,. enter a convent/congregation, that is the beginning of the end. It should be nipped in the bud.
• “Donations”: Some Catholic schools, colleges and parishes demand a “donation” of lakhs for admission in our schools and providing jobs. We say we are poor, but are we? Again, witness value is nil.

5. You have written twelve books. How do you see the ministry of writing?

 Today, social media is king. People all over—city or village alike—are captivated by their charm and utility. While I appreciate the enormous possibilities they offer, I am a devotee of the print medium for its many benefits. So, I write.

My audiences are varied, the main concern being to communicate values, particularly to children and youth. A couple of my books are religiously oriented.

Some of my books have gone into reprints. This is the feedback, an indication that they are appreciated. Otherwise, very few persons have told me personally that they find my books useful.

6. You were the editor of Pauline Publications. Tell us something about this ministry.

Editing is a beautiful ministry, very challenging too. Our slogan is: Nourishing the mind, strengthening the will and purifying the heart.  When a manuscript reaches our editorial office, we accept it only if it fits in with our policy. If it needs major editing, we suggest that the author incorporate the needed changes. Otherwise, the editor does the needful and sends it to the next step. Often the evaluation of the manuscript is carried out by more than one person. The editor with her team visualizes the final product, determines the audience, the cost, the number of copies to be printed and the technical details of the final product. Editorial work involves a certain amount of risk. When the book does not move as expected, It becomes a liability to the production house.

7. You have been exposed to different cultures. What has this taught you?

The countries where I have stayed long enough to be impacted by their culture are not many. Others were short visits for the purpose of a conference or consultation. Besides Africa, I have stayed longer in Italy (here too I have experience only of my own communities). As is well known, Italy has all trappings of being very religious, particularly its monuments and places of worship. But one gets the impression that true spirituality is on the decline. The Italians are warm-hearted, welcoming, hard working, generous and helpful.

I have gained inspiration from sisters in the various communities where I stayed: they are very much in love with the Charism of the congregation. A good number of them are professionally prepared and make creative use of the media to proclaim the Gospel.

Finally, human nature is the same everywhere. Our basic needs are a little love, understanding, respect and appreciation. When mutually shared, there is happiness for all.

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Sr Clare Ukken FSP

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