…
DATE :
To
His Eminence Cardinal Crescenzio
Sepe,
Sacred Congregation,
For the (Doctrines of Faith) Evangelization
of Peoples,
Palazzo di Propaganda Fide,
Plazza di Spagna 48,
00187, Rome, Italy.
Your
Eminence,
Sub:
Informing Your Eminence that the Catholic Faith is being rooted out by
the Bishops and the priests in the present day Catholic Church in Tamilnadu,
that they are very keen only in earning money and that they are abusing their
authority and requesting to take action against them – Reg.
I, G. Xavier Regis, belong to the
parish of Cheranmahadevi of the Palayamkottai Diocese. I am a retired teacher and I have worked as a
teacher for 33 years. I am not someone
who has studied Philosophy and Theology like the present bishops and
priest! But at the same time, I am
neither a thickheaded fool who knows nothing!! On the contrary, my Faith is the
Truth I have learnt. This faith is a
treasure taught by my parents and I am living with the same Faith till
date. I beseech your eminence to pray
for me as our Lord Jesus Christ prayed for St. Peter, that I do not lose this
faith under any circumstances.
It was this Faith which induced me
to write this letter. The Church has
announced this year as the Year of Faith.
But the Tamil Bishops and Priests call this year as the year of Hope
(with “Year of Faith” within brackets).
The Document of the Second Vatican
Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, No. 125 advises not to remove the images of
Saints from the Altars. But our pastors
have removed them from our altars today.
This is hostile to what we declare in our Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in
the Communion of Saints.” Also the same
document mentioned above, No. 126 commands not to demolish the artistic and
ornamental altars, but our spiritual superior have gone against this too.
Canon 846 (1) has forbidden the
celebration of Mass according to one’s own wishes, which may cause a decline in
piety in the Holy Masses and other liturgical services. Before distributing Communion, the priest
says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world.” But nowadays, the words “Who takes away the
sins of the world” are deliberately omitted.
And this also goes against the Canon law above mentioned.
Our bishops and the priests do not
seem to bother about Canon 392 (2). And
due to this negligence on the part of them, so many Catholics have left and are
continually leaving the Catholic Church for other schismatic and heretic
sects. “Indianization” is only used to
let Hinduism infiltrate into our Liturgy.
According to Canon 284, priests must
wear their cassock and sash, but unfortunately 95 percent of priests here do
not care about wearing them at all. There is always room for doubt whether the
Masses celebrated by the present-day-priests are really Masses. (As per the Epistle of St. Paul to the
Hebrews, Chapter 9,) the Catholic Faith will take deep roots in the minds of
the people only by using the words which are based upon the Fundamentals of
Catholic Faith defined by the Councils of the Church. On the contrary, the usage of wrong words
will give way to heretic ideas.
The Canon 1251 distinctly commands
not to eat meat on Fridays. But it is
only a question whether the present day bishops and priests observe this rule.
Ten pious and perfect priests are
enough to run a diocese under a holy bishop rather than having 100 priests and
a bishop, who do not live according to the Catholic norms and who are always
running after the wealth and the pleasures of the world. Our Lord God said to Abraham, “We will not
destroy the city, if ten just men can be found in it.” So, a few good priests will be enough, the
Church will thrive prosperously upon them.
The Canon, 767 (1) says that the
priests, in their Sunday Masses, must preach on the teachings of the Bible and
about the saints and their holy lives.
But the sermons these priests preach today are very much superfluous and
contain materials that do not help in developing the Theological and other
Virtues in the lives of the faithful.
Rev. Fr. Arul M. Arockiam is the
present parish priest at our Cheranmahadevi parish of the Diocese of
Palayamkottai. He has studied human
psychology and giving counseling to those in need of it. The parishioners have requested him not to
start the parish council in the parish, since the previous parish council was
only useful to create divisions among the faithful. We have come together again only recently
forgetting the differences among us. But
the parish priest is very obstinate in this.
He also stresses that a Finance Committee should also be
established. And we oppose it too. He has purchased a Suzuki car and demands
that the parish council must reimburse the money. Our government gave us, the Dalit people, a
burial ground free of cost. Our parish
priest stresses his claim on that land too.
He says the key of that graveyard should be entrusted to him. And if not, he threatens that he would not
come to bless the graves on the 2nd of November. This is purely against the 10th
Commandment of God. He also compels the
faithful to pay Rs. 25 every month for the administering of the
Sacraments. If we do not pay it, he
refuses to administer Baptism to our infants.
As we did not give in to his wishes,
he locked the church and went to stay in the Bishop’s house. No action has been taken on him by the bishop
too till date. We, the parish people,
only very recently built up this church with our own money. Till date, we, the faithful have provided Rs.
8,000,000 for the building of the church.
Why should we give so much money, if it should be kept closed like this?
He collects Rs. 250 for the Mass for
the dead and Rs. 750 for a wedding Mass.
As your eminence know well, there
are three forms of “The Angelus.” The
prayer form is to be recited at 5 am, 12 noon and 6 pm. Has any priest or bishop worried about the
observation of this by the faithful? Or
have they spoken about this at least once in their monthly meetings? Only God knows!
When I was a little boy, the church
bell would chime at 8 pm. The then
priests taught us to pray for the souls in Purgatory. Now, we do not know whether there existed
such a practice in the Church!
In 1994, the Bishops of Tamilnadu
came together in a convention that was held in the Diocese of Sivagangai in
which a resolution was passed as to pronounce “Pitha, Suthan, Parisutha Aavi”
(the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost) always instead of “Thanthai, Magan,
Thooya Aavi” in a modern style. But it
is really painful to behold the bishops themselves saying “Thanthai, Magan,
Thooya Aavi.”
In the Roman Missal, General
Instructions, part 2, No 19, (paragraph 4, page 24) issued by the Tamilnadu
bishops, they have taught that it is desirable for the Catholics to learn to
sing together at least some parts of the Mass, especially Credo, Pater Noster,
etc., in Latin in ordinary music, since the number of Catholic faithful coming
together from various countries keeps on increasing. After 20 years since, the question arises why
the Tamilian bishops do not care about this.
The local bishops received approval from
the Holy See to say “Ithu ungalukkaga kaialikkappadum En Sareeram” (This is My Body
offered for you”. But they illegally use
“En Udal” a modern, depthless
word. In the Missal, they have lied that
the permission of the Holy See has already been obtained. They do not think that it is a sin. Hence, every Mass celebrated by these bishops
and priests become, in a particular sense, invalid which has no approbation of
the Holy See! How will the bread be
transubstantiated into the Body of Christ when a non-approved-by-Holy See-word,
Udal is used as a word of consecration?
This only serves to prove that the bishops and the priests of Tamilnadu
have nothing to worry whatsoever, about their conscience. In this way, they not only deceive
themselves, their Catholic flock and Vatican, but also, above all, our Lord
Himself. How can this deed of them
otherwise be called, rather than a sacrilege?
Nowadays, money is the only thing
the bishops and the priests need. They
deduct a particular percent of the salary of the teachers working in the
schools under their administration for the diocese and some percent for the
growth of the parish. This is utterly
painful. I humbly request the Vatican
Administration to conduct a probe into this and take necessary action.
The above mentioned details are
about the scams done in the Faith, the Mass and the dealing of money. I request your eminence to carry out an
inquiry about all this and take necessary measures to correct them all.
Yours truly,
G.
XAVIER REGIS, M.A., B.T., S.L.C.
6/56,
Arasady 3rd street,
Cheranmahadevi
– 627 414,
Tirunelveli
District,
Tamilnadu
– India.
