Paganisation of the Liturgy in India
by
C.B. Andrade Ph.D.
Part II.
The national biblical, catechetical and liturgical centre
and an order of the mass for India (NBCLC)
In Part I of this article I dealt with the subject of the 12 Hindu
gestures and symbols that had been forcibly and fraudulently introduced
into the liturgy. That calculated heresy on the part of the Indian
hierarchy and clergy was disgustingly horrendous enough but something
even more diabolical was to follow and, as in the case of the 12 points
of adaption, it was spewed forth from the septic focus of paganism
with-in the so-called 'Catholic' Church in India – the National
Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre, – a positively satanic
organization spawned by the 'Catholic Bishops Conference of India
(CBCI) spearheaded by two crypto-Hindus: D.S. Amalorpavadass. These two
evil men are the architects and evil genious of the paganisation of the
Church in India, ably aided and abetted by the majority of the Indian
Bishops.
The NBCLC
What is the NBCLC? To the uninitiated, the name suggests a Catholic
organisation, but it is not. It is nothing but a hot-bed of paganism, a
hub from which heathen practices and beliefs radiate like the spokes of
e wheel to permeate and saturate the fabric of what was once pure,
reverent, solemn Catholic worship.
Physically, it is a sprawling complex of buildings constructed on a
large area of urban land at the cost of some 60 lakshs of rupees (1.5
million DM, approximately) which, in a poor country like India, is a
positively staggering and iniquitously wasteful sum. And this money was
provided by MISSIO, an organisation run by the Bishops of West-Germany
providing almost unlimited funds for the work of evangelisation mostly
in the developing countries. It is therefore the German lay Catholic
who gives his hard-earned money to MISSIO. The sole purpose of the
NBCLC is to brainwash Catholics into Hinduism - a purpose that is
evident from the very architectural style of the so-called 'Church' and
its trappings as can be seen from the photographs an illustrations
reproduced alongside this article.
Innumerable seminars have been held at the NBCLC and are regularly
attended by 'priests' and a large number of 'nuns' - more dangerous
than the sultans wives. These indoctrinated 'priests' and 'nuns' then
return to their localaties and institutions to disseminate the pagan
poison they have imbibed at the seminars conducted at the NBCLC by
poojari (Hindu priest) Amalorpavadass and his minions. The West-German
lay Catholic is therefore donating money to MISSIO which is used to
convert Catholics into Hindus.
The following extract from a letter to the CBCI by Fr. T. J. Chacko,
Assistant Director, Pastoral Training Centre, Imphal / Manipur, who
attended the NBCLC's tenth Intensive Training Course throws much light
on the character of that Institution and on the so-called training
imparted at its seminars.
Fr. Chacko writes:
"Interpersonal Relationship (IPR)."
One of the highlights of the course was the fostering of IPR. Besides
the many lectures on IPR, we had a night-long discussion on sex
relationship, physical expressions of love etc. It started at 8.30 p.m.
and lasted till 2.30 a.m. of the following morning, which was short
compared with the one during the previous course, which lasted till 4
a.m. Most of the participants perserved till the end anxiously and
curiously waiting for the solemn conclusion given by the Director as to
how far and how deep one can go in fostering IPR. The happy and
infallible conclusion given by the Director in short was:
'Let us begin from the end, say, sexual intercourse; of course that is
not allowed by the Church. But there are opinions that permit even
that. I don't hold it, and the magisterium does not permit it. (Nor do
I condemn it as none has the right to condemn.) As the attraction
towards each other is good and normal, so also the physical expression
of love is good and normal. Of course, we have to be mature and honest,
respect each other's feelings, agree as to what sign to use and must
not scandalise anyone... etc.'
From this one can logically conclude the necessary consequences that
would follow with-in the walls of the NBCLC of the CBCI, where all are
taken to be mature and honest and well-instructed in IPR. No wonder,
quite a few priest-nun pairs emerged and were noted deepening their IPR
often through the greater part of the night, some even spending
weekends together elsewhere. Of course no one has the right to judge or
get scandalized. Even if all this is natural and normal for those who
are mature and learned, as our director, many of us thought that it is
a little too early to go that deep, as most of us are not that mature,
especially, as the Church's law of celibacy is not yet abolished."
Nothing I could say about the NBCLC would give the readers of EINSICHT
a clearer picture of the true character of that institution and his
Director. From what Fr. Chacko has written the place appears to be
nothing but a "house of ill-fame". And let me add that no action was
taken by the CBCI either to reprimand the director of the NBCLC or to
intervenc in any way to change the character of that iniquitous, pagan,
heretical and scandalous institution. If the Indian Bishops were true
bishops they would have excommunicated Director Amalorpavadass, kicked
him out into the gutter where he belongs and closed down the NBCLC
which is a scandal to the Faith and a monument to iniquity. But,
perhaps, the Indian Bishops adopted a policy of laissez faire towards
the NBCLC and its Director in the hope that they themselves might have
the opportunity of practical participation in one of Amalorpavadass'
IPR classes!
An order of the mass for India
The following is the liturgy of the 'Mass' concocted by Amalorpavadass
and used regularly in the NBCLC and several convents and other
so-called 'Catholic' centers in India with the full approval of the
CBCI: (The 'Order of Mass' can be ordered from the editor)
Some comments on the 'Indian Mass'
(The serial numbers are those of the text of the ritual.)
No. 1(b): Washing of hands and feet before entering 'the place of
worship' (why not call it a church, if it is one) is unknown in the
liturgy of the Church; it is a Muslim custom, whereas Hindus take a
bath which could not very well be done in the bitter cold of North
India. The 'Commentary' at the end of No. 1 is the worst passage of the
whole text clearly revealing the intention of its author(s). It does
not contain any Christian, let alone Catholic term. According to it the
celebration has to be a national one, for national purposes, in
national religious forms. Thus, it ceases to be Catholic (i.e.
universal).
No. 2: In the 'Commentary' the celebrant is called 'a sign' of Christ.
Certainly not! If he is a Catholic priest, he acts in the person of
Christ (a doctrine denied by protestantism) which is much more than
being only 'a sign'. The celebrant is greeted with arati (the waving of
a lighted lamp before his face). Walker's "Hindu world" Vol.11, London
1968, says that the "object of the arati rite is to please the deity
with bright lights and colours and also to counteract the evil eye" (P.
609). Dubois-Beauchamp, in their famous "Hindu manners, customs and
ceremonies" Vol.1, Oxford 1897, tell us that arati is one of the
commonest religious practices of the Hindus. It is performed by married
women and courtesans; the object is to counteract the influence of the
evil eye and any ill-effects arising from the jealous and spiteful
looks of ill-intentioned persons. It is performed over distinguished
persons or those of high rank, elephants, horses, domestic animals,
idols etc. Therefore, arati used at the beginning of the celebration of
the Mass is apt to create the impression that a pagan ceremony is about
to follow. This impression is fortified by what follows immediately.
No. 3: The celebrant greets the community with 'OM' and words in
Sanskrit which have no Christian meaning but reflect Hindu polytheism.
This is definitely the case with the word 'OM' (our 'AUM'). Abbé
Dubois, who completed his work about 160 years ago, says that the
Brahmins of his time tried to keep the real meaning of this word ('OM')
a profound secret and the greater number of them did not even
understand it. He himself did not have much doubt that 'OM' is "the
symbolic name of the Supreme Being, one and indivisible". But
Beauchamp, the editor of Dubois' book, added in a footnote, quoting an
unnamed authority: "As long as there has been a Hindu Faith the power
of sound has been recognized in the Sacred word. In that word lie all
potencies, for the Sacred word expresses the one and latent Being,
every power of generation, of preservation and of destruction...".
Walker notes that 'OM' is the most solemn of the most powerful class of
mantras (magic words) and magical utterances, called bijakshara. Every
true bijakshara mantra ends with a nasal sound actually going over in a
kind of 'vibration'. The bijakshara are used to worship the deities
like Siva, Ganesa, Lakshmi etc. The brief 'Mandukya Upanishad' is
entirely devoted to the mystic syllable OM. "It is compounded od three
sounds: "a u m", representing the three Vedas (Rig, Tajur, Sama), the
three worlds (heaven, atmosphere, earth), the three universe, which
are, as it were, gathered to a point within it, it is used for
invocations, affirmations and blessing and at the commencement and
termination of prayer, meditation or work. It is said to be the
mystical quintessence of the entire cosmos... the monarch of all
sounded things, the mother of vibrations, and the key to eternal wisdom
and power". (Vol. II, pp 103-104)
No. 5: Enhances the impression that one is present at a Hindu ceremony
because it begins with what is called Shuddi. Walker's Encyclopedia
states that sadhana (purification) and suddi (purity) play a vital part
in Hindu religious observance; they are related to the concept sancha
(cleanliness) and he who practices this "is qualified to witness the
Self". The Commentary to No. 5 says that the five-fold suddi is meant
to remove "all the barriers that stand in the way of... the wholeness
of our person, our oneness (instead of unity) with the community of men
and our total harmony with the universe". There is not a single
Christian word in all this; it is all Hindu and many OM's have to be
said to make the five-fold suddhi effective. Christ did not practice
the ritual washings and purifications of the Jews and the Apostles
abolished them, except one: – the Holy Sacrament of Baptism. But now
these washings and purifications have again been fully introduced in
the order of worship by Amalorpavadass in order to turn Christian
worship into a Hindu ceremony. What a betrayal of Christian principles
and practice!!
No. 11: After the complicated ritual purification, a lamp is lighted
and the commentary proceeding No. 11 says that by the ritual
purification "all barriers of sin have been removed and all darkness of
sin dispelled". This is a typically Hindu idea. In the Catholic
religion, only in an act of full contrition and in the Sacraments of
Baptism and Penance does God forgive our sins; not by mere ritual.
No. 13: The light, thought to symbolize the presence of God among us,
is venerated by celebrants and the congregation by touching it with
their finger tips and bringing the fingers to the eyes. This ceremony
is totally unknown in Christianity and after all the preceding Hindu
worship, gives the clear impression of fire worship which is still very
much alive in India as everybody knows, and not only among the Parsees.
Indead, it is not only an impression, for fire worship and sun worship
are both propagated by the NBCLC.
No. 14: Homage to the Bible. This is taken from Protestantism, which
has a real cult of the Bible. Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox
venerate the book of the Gospels because it represents Christ, the
invisible Head of the Church, the High Priest of our faith, the one who
is represented (not only symbolized) by the priest at the altar. The
Bible (and not the Gospels) is incensed while the celebrant sings
"Brahma is truth, knowledge infinite". Brahma is, as is well known, no
Christian, but a Hindu deity, the first god of the Hindu triad. He who
prays to Brahma denies his Christian faith and adores the Golden Calf.
The readers (of the Old Testament, Epistles and Gospels) are blessed by
the celebrant, not with the sign of the Cross but with a Hindu gesture
of the hands called mala mudra (mudra = 'seal'; gesture). Readings are
from the Old Testament, the Epistles and the Gospel (although passages
from the Hindu Scriptures are read by many who perform this 'Hindu
Mass'). Between the first and second readings there is a chant in
Sanskrit.
No. 21: There is now a procession of gifts in which "the whole universe
and all mankind are brought back to God through Jesus Christ in the
Eucharist". This idea, taken as a symbol, is wrong. The Holy Eucharist
belongs to the covenant concluded between God (Christ) and the
faithful, as the words of the Institution (Consecration) clearly say.
All the gifts are to be laid (if possible) on the little table, called
peeta, behind which the celebrant is squatting all the time, watching
the congregation. According to No. 23 the celebrant invokes "the spirit
of the Father" on the offerings (on all of them, not only on the bread
and wine). According to Christian thought and eucharistic practice,
this is nonsense. It also does not appear that we have to do with the
Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. European modernists
like to speak of "the Spirit of the Father".
No. 23: OM is repeated 8 times. The author never gets enough of this
mantra and repeats it often in the Hindu way. The more it is repeated
the more powerfully it is said to work.
No. 24: Mentions the "Eucharistic Prayer" but does not quote it. This
makes one suspicious, because if one of the approved canons is to be
used, at least the shortest of them might have been quoted. But it is
known that there is also an "Indian canon", forbidden even by Rome but
still used. So the silence of the formula leaves room for illegal texts.
The 'Canon' is followed by a communion rite which is introduced by the
celebrant in a few words called Prasada mantra. Prasada has a special
and very living meaning in Hindu worship as everybody in India knows.
It means the food given to the gods and, from the use of this word, one
gets the impression that a magical ceremony is to follow, resembling
Hindu temple worship. The Blood of Christ is not called by its name,
but is called nectar which, in Hindu mythology is the drink of the
gods, giving them immortality (as in Greek mythology). Sure, the
Eucharist is for us the "food of immortality", but the taking over of a
term (and necessarily its underlying idea) from a living religion is
one more item of syncretism intended to mislead the faithful,
especially those who might come to the Church from a Hindu environment.
No. 28: Nowhere in the text is it clearly said that the bread and wine
have been changed into the Blood of Christ. The words used do not need
to have more than a symbolical meaning.
No. 31: Manasa puja! Flowers, a light and a vessel of ointment are
placed on the peeta table. A manasa is, again, a magic text, a mantra.
The author of this liturgy never gets enough of giving the impression
that he is practising magic. In the Oriental rites (and originally in
the Latin as well) nothing could be placed on the altar except the
Gospel, the Cross and the holy vessels and their contents needed for
Mass.
No. 32: The celebrant tells God that the faithful "feel our limbs are
made glorious by your touch" (a not very Christian expression) and that
God has made Himself known to us today in "the breaking of the bread".
Again, no clear expression of the eucharistic doctrine of the Church.
No. 34: The words of what is called the "solemn blessing" of the
celebrant (nowhere called priest) mention a "God beyond all name and
form"... "who became manifest in Jesus Christus" (this is the language
of the modernists of Europe; God became man in Jesus Christ, who is a
divine Person) ... "the indweller in the cave of your hearts". All
these words can be understood with a pantheistic Hindu meaning (Christ
mentioned as an avatar (in Hindu mythology, the descent to earth and
incarnation of a deity); they are not specifically Christian.
To conclude: The impression one gets from this strange rite is that of
a curious mixture of Hindu and Christian elements. It deliberately
tries to do away as much as possible with the distinction bet-ween
Hinduism and Christianity and also between Catholicism and
Protestantism. It tries to suppress the unique character of the
Christian religion and consequently of Catholic worship. A liturgy like
this concoction of Amalorpavadass has never been produced in the whole
of Christianity, and it is a deliberate, premediated break with the
whole tradition of the Church.
This is not only serious but bad because he has introduced Hindu
worship into the Church in India, spurred by the false idea that
liturgy should be national and that there are no "false religions" in
India. His syncretistic liturgical blend will not attract any
intelligent Hindu to the Church, but will create a new sect, a
Hindu-Christian one, and it remains to be seen whether this will be
predominantly Christian or Hindu.
The comments on the 'Indian Mass' are taken with some adaptations from an artic. by J.P.H.Van der Ploeg O.P.
***
„Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus est“
(Cipriano de Cártago)
„¿Ser cristiano sin Iglesia?“– se dirigÃa preferentemente a personas
que, por los más diversos motivos, se habÃan distanciado del ministerio
eclesiástico oficial (por ejemplo a causa de la supuesta paralización
de las reformas, de una decepción personal o de una esclerosis
espiritual, o mejor dicho, de una „intolerancia“ en cuestiones de fe
pero sobre todo también en cuestiones de moral), la pregunta de antes y
la respuesta de Cipriano tienen que aplicarse en una medida particular
también a nuestra situación, con sus problemas especÃficos.
Las realidades hay que juzgarlas sobriamente: también nosotros (bien
que no por culpa nuestra, sino por culpa de la „revolución desde
arriba“) nos hallamos en la situación de (tener que) llevar nuestra
existencia cristiana fuera de la Iglesia (como institución sagrada),
mas también para nosotros rige el principio de que „extra Ecclesiam
nulla salus“, „no hay salvación fuera de la Iglesia“: el centro misal
en X no es la Iglesia, el Padre Y no es la autoridad, aunque pueda
participar de ella si a partir de ella se legitima a sà mismo o
legitima sus acciones –en un sentido que aún hay que describir–.
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