I am your Lord thy God…

…..and thou shall have no other Gods before me. Always thought that this was the first commandment of the ten, and just realized that it is also the commandment of the Bishop of Mumbai.

Every year a ritual of ‘First Holy Communion’ in Bombay is held around the Christmas Season. It is a ritual which is once in a life time where a child is graduated in the teachings of the Catholic faith, and is amongst the other sacraments a person receives in their life time as a Catholic. Somehow religious rituals are more a formality and the fervor of religious values as in all religious faiths is fading. Parents prepare for the occasion of ‘First Holy Communion’ with great enthusiasm and the occasion being around the Christmas Season there is a lot festivity around it.

Children start preparing for the ‘First Holy Communion’ around the beginning of the year, where they are inducted into additional religion classes. Had the announcement of the change of date of the ‘First Holy Communion’ told in the beginning, parents would be prepared for the same. Suddenly a meeting is called of all parents of children receiving ‘First Holy Communion’, and without taking their consent or opinion it is dictated that the date of the ‘First Holy Communion’ is shifted to February.

The resentment amongst parents in one Parish was obvious, and Catholics being the ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ of society just quietly lump anything that is dished out to them. One brave parent stood up and asked the logic of having the ‘First Holy Communion’ in February which was near the period of lent, where Christians observe a period of abstinence commemorating the death of Jesus on Good Friday. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have the occasion near the Christmas Season, the reply was simple that it is orders from the Bishop. The parent who was courageous to speak thought he would get support of other parents who too were not happy with the date change, but as mentioned, being Catholics, everyone was silent as no one wants to mess with the Church. Another reason given was the children should have a minimum of one year of religious studies before receiving ‘First Holy Communion’. Why did His Excellency not think of this in the beginning, and did he only realize later, that Jesus needs one year to be pushed into the minds of children?

To make it worse like in many Churches we have ‘some of the’ elderly, or housewives who nothing constructive to do, who come and volunteer in the Church. (I repeat and reiterate some; as many do very noble and genuine voluntary and spiritual work). In the process of volunteering they acquire a ‘self styled ordained’ feeling that they are the priestly class. So in this meeting of parents one of the ‘self styled ordained dictator’ starts complaining how children stop attending religion class after the ‘First Holy Communion’, and only crowd back in their teenage years to receive another sacrament called ‘Confirmation’. Obviously if you are going to make religious studies ‘Talabanised’ kids won’t be interested. Then the diktat of the ‘First Holy Communion’ dresses for the girls should not be sleeveless, should not be short,  and to emphasize the rule is the fear driven that if the dress code is not maintained the kid will not be allowed to receive ‘First Holy Communion’. Why not just make it a ‘Burkha’ or a ‘Habit’ like the nuns? Even the ‘Habit’ of the nuns has grown shorter over the decades, from the long dresses that used to cover their ankles, to now above it.

My request to His Excellency is can you not see the scandals happening in the Diocese of Bombay with land scams in parishes, extortion of money as donation for admission to schools, etc. Dictating religious values is only deteriorating the beliefs of the community further. Catholic institutions globally are going through a challenging period with sex abuse and other atrocities done by priests. If priests cannot get spiritual virtues into their lives after years of theological studies, how are you trying it to push religion into kids in a year through a bunch of priests, some of them who put us to sleep with their sermons, or some idiotic laity who feel your word is the word of God?

Running religion classes like ‘madrasas’ will only ensure kids go through their ‘First Holy Communion’ as their last.