Cardinal Dias Has High Hopes for India
Jul 03, 2006
Urges Believers to Ensure Country's Spiritual Growth
BOMBAY, India, JUNE 28, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The former archbishop of Bombay urged believers to ensure that India grows not only as an economic power but above all in spiritual and moral values.
Recently appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Ivan Dias bid farewell to the archdiocese in which he was born and of which he has been pastor for the past decade.
Some 4,000 people from various faiths gathered Sunday in the Jesuit College of St. Peter in Bandra for the event.
Addressing those present, the cardinal said that India could make great strides ahead in spiritual progress, to be measured not so much by the stock exchange but by the growth of civic sense and moral values.
"Christ loves India and India needs Christ," he stressed.
For their part, participants in the ceremony praised the cardinal for his significant commitment to interreligious dialogue in the country, as reported in a note issued by the bishops' conference of India.
Cardinal Dias said that three evils threaten the country: "ethnic chauvinism, the caste system and corruption."
He expressed the hope that India's many parties and politicians would show themselves to be statesmen of moral integrity, committed to working for the poor and outcast.
Church's commitment
The former archbishop of Bombay took advantage of the occasion to reiterate that the work of the Church in India, in the fields of education, social welfare and health, does not have, and never did have, the aim of proselytism.
He stressed the Church's aspect of commitment, not proselytism, a month ago, highlighting the figures of this dedicated work.
Although Christians represent only 2.3% of the Indian population, the cardinal observed, "they attend to 20% of the whole of primary education in the country, 10% of health and literacy community programs, 25% of care for orphans and widows, and 30% of care for the disabled, lepers and AIDS sufferers."
"The vast majority of those who make use of these institutions" belong to religions other than Christianity, he noted.
Such institutions are "very appreciated by Hindus, Muslims" and members of other creeds or of no creed, "who admire Christians for their dedicated service to the suffering, the marginalized, the illiterate and the oppressed," the cardinal added.
Before his address on Sunday, Cardinal Dias presided over the farewell Eucharist concelebrated by 18 bishops. Members of the Ecumenical Fellowship of Bishops and personalities who are actively involved in interfaith dialogue were also present.
Cardinal Dias Has High Hopes for India