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One Bishop replies to Open letter to Bishops: Promises Support!

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Food for Thought

Eurekka ! Friends & Readers of CCV

kottorOne Bishop replies to Open letter to Bishops

You have to pray as if everything depended on God and you have to work as if everything depended on you. When you have exhausted all humanly possible efforts gently, kindly, earnestly and honestly and still FAIL, what else will you do?

I don’t know what you will do. But I normally give up all hope, admit failure, admit my total inability, my bankruptcy, remembering the Lord’s admonition to call yourself a “useless servant”  and try to muster all possible strength to accept what the Lord pleases to give following again his own example: “Let thy will be done.”  Then miracle happens. It happened so many times in my life, at least I felt so, when I received that letter.

I wrote in my letter to Bishops: “Is there not a single Indian Bishop with the smell of the sheep? All airport bishops?”  If so, so be it, I was resigning myself to my pitiable plight. Then low and behold there shone bright the Star of Hope: Archbishop Bharanikulangara’s letter from Delhi: dr. james kottoor


Tharu BA, tharuba@yahoo.com, Aug.2/15

dr. james kottoor

A very fine Good Morning to you and a Blessed Sunday!

bishopI have gone through your very interesting lines. I liked very much your comparison of Simon of Cyrene. Very good. Such Simons also do have a role in the way of the cross and on the path to Salvation too!

Your arguments – especially on the theology of family – are valid. As you know whenever there is a chance for me personally, I hold on to that position. The Church should do everything to join the families and not to separate them. Your finding, with reference to that US circular (Angadiath’s letter) was not in the minutes or proceedings of the Synod, is very clever. Kudos!

Archbishop Kuriakose

Faridabad


And I had to write the following reply to Him

Dear Archbishop Kuriakose,

Today I feel extremely proud of you and also really thankful to the Lord for you.

It is not for your supporting me or agreeing with me. Both you and I could be wrong in many things, even with the best of intentions. But you today proved that you have the courage to call a spade a spade, that you have the Jesus-like quality of Frankly Speaking (Palam Locutus sum). Without that kind of transparency how can any one be a true follower of Jesus, most of all or worst of all, call oneself a bishop?

I may not have written to you about something that happened, but on another occasion, I had to write about you and about bishops who do or do not dialogue with people. Few including you, like Cardinal Osward Gracias, Bishop Lawrence Pius and Bishop Puthur have been dialoguing with me or criticizing me and I had to give my rating on one occasion, although comparisons are odious. While I gave B+ and A to a Bishop and Cardinal, I had to give A+ to you for your courage and honesty to express your view starting with the time I wrote:

Who destroys Catholic Families?

You were the first respondent to that article, among the twenty, and now you happen to be the first to this Open Letter to Indian Bishops also.  I really wish and pray that your example becomes widely contagious among bishops.

I am not saying that Bishops should approve what myself or Church citizens write, as you have done in this case, but they should have at least the elementary courtesy (like Pappa Francis) to respond when a letter is sent or a question is asked. We all make mistakes and learn from them. Francis makes them and delights in admitting publicly “Yes I made a mistake or That was an error” May God bless you and more strength to your pen and leadership role in the area of vertical dialogue,

james kottoor, editor ccv


Following the Archbishop came another letter from a Church Citizen in Kolkotta

Dear Dr James,

Issac gomesThe word catholic literally means "universal," as in "the universal church." It originally was applied to all Christians because we are all part of the universal church in the way that we are all members of the Body of Christ. The Latin word is catholicus, and in Greek it is katholikos, from the Greek phrase meaning "on the whole, according to the whole or in general." One of the meanings of word in English is "including a wide variety of things; all-embracing."

Catholic was first used to describe the Christian Church in the early 2nd century to emphasize its universal scope. When one of the pillars of the Pastoral Plan of the Catholic Church is Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue, in an increasingly pluralistic society in India and the US, it is sheer madness to talk of pure blood marriages in Kottayam Diocese and among Knananites in India and US.

However, for the sake of authenticity it would be better to get a signed copy of the 19th Sept. 2014 Circular of Bishop Angadiath of Chicago.  It is also to be proved that Cardinal Alencherry of Ernakulam has approved of this of practice befitting Muhammad bin Tughluq! Regards.

Isaac


Dear Isaac,

I have already published the signed article of Bishops Angadiath which is below my email as here. See below. As for Cardinal Alencherry’ approval I already wrote to the Cardinal and his two other bishops helping him, asking if he gave his approval but has not received a reply. Only then I wrote to Chicago and got the signed letter in Bishop’s letter pad circulated among Knanaya parishes which is given below.

As for pure blood: Jesus himself didn’t have pure blood, if we go by the theory of its promoters. Few of Jesus’ grand mothers were prostitutes or non Jews. See below what I said on Aug.3rd 2013 in Chicago.

And last but not the least, what about the purity of blood in Jesus’ own genealogy? If we go by the standard of Knananites, even Jesus the Saviour of the world cannot claim purity of blood because four women in his ancestry – his great Grandmas — were not even Jesus’ Blood Line Jews but gentiles and shady characters: Tamar was a Cananite, widowed twice, nay she disguised herself as a prostitute and got pregnant by Judha her own Father-in-law. Rahab was another gentile prostitute of Jericho. Ruth was a Moabite non-Jew and the 4th,  Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and mother of Solomon.


Below is the much discussed and controversial decree issued by Mar AngadiathmqdefaultBishop's Letter