In 'heart-to-heart' talks, Indian bishops share their work with Pope

(Sept. 07, 2011) The religious nature of the Indian people, discrimination against Catholics, interreligious dialogue and evangelization were the main topics of discussion when two dozen Indian bishops met with Pope Benedict XVI early September. Making their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican to report on how things are going in their dioceses, the Indian bishops went to the pope's summer villa at Castel Gandolfo, where they had a few minutes alone with the pope, then met with him in groups of six, seven or eight for a 20-minute discussion.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, spoke to Catholic News Service Sept. 2, after concelebrating Mass with the other bishops at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul’s outside the Walls. The Cardinal said that his group spoke to the pope about the challenges the Indian church is facing. We are a small minority, but we have a great influence in the fields of education, health care and community building. The Holy Father was particularly interested in our efforts at interreligious dialogue," the cardinal said. “While there have been acts of intimidation and violence against Christians in India, the church is building bridges with members of other religions and collaborating together to build peace, to build a better India, to see how we could bring God back into society. He said “While the people of India traditionally have been deeply religious, God is beginning to move from center stage, getting a little marginalized, especially in the lives of people living in urban areas. But secularization is having less of an impact among Indian Catholics than Catholics in many other countries. Cardinal Gracias said he told the pope "85 percent of our people go for Sunday Mass and he was happy to hear that . "Naturally I invited the Holy Father to India. That was very important because all of us are waiting for his visit but he did not say how the pope responded to the invitation.
The cardinal, who served as vice chairman of the Vatican's Vox Clara Committee for the new English translation of the Mass, said the Indian bishops are using the introduction of the new missal as an opportunity to educate the faithful, but also the priests, about the importance of liturgy.