(The concluding
part of the trilogy on the Catholic Directory of India)
It is presumed that facts and figures speak for
themselves. That largely depends on how they are presented and the methodology
used. In recent times our country has been rocked by the “presumptive losses”
incurred in the allocation of natural resources like coal, or scientific
resources like telecom spectrum. In both cases, the tools of analysis,
methodology, and even the motives of the proponents and opponents of the
presumptive losses, have been suspect.
I
do not wish to enter into such a controversy. Hence I have chosen to present
the raw data with minimal explanatory notes or remarks, leaving the intelligent
reader to draw its own conclusions. In my previous two articles, “A Glance at
the Catholic Directory” and “Looking Back to Move Forward”, I have presented
the preliminary data of the Catholic Directory of India (CDI) 2013, and made
some observations/ comparisons with the CDI 1912. The elapse of a hundred years
is a good area for study.
In
this concluding piece I am presenting the comparative data of the CDIs of 1969/
1990/ 1998/ 2013. I have chosen to begin from 1969, because this is the first
CDI I have, after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council (Vat II) in
1965. It is also the year in which the Church in India Seminar was held. It was
hailed as the Indian equivalent of Vat II. It was intended to be a course
correction in the life and mission (ecclesiology) of the church in India. To
what extent has that change actually taken place? On a personal note, 1969 is
also the year in which I turned 18, and immediately joined the Legion of Mary,
my launching pad into ecclesial life. It is also the year in which I purchased
a copy of the Vat II documents from Asian Trading Corporation, Bangalore.
The
CDIs of 1990 and 1998 were chosen in order to have a reasonable gap for study
of the evolution/ progress of the church; and 2013 obviously because it is the
latest CDI. I will be presenting various tables with brief observations. I have
tried to compute and compare the data in a truthful manner. However, if there
are any computing errors I hope to be forgiven, and will be happy to stand
corrected. My first table is of world statistics.
TABLE I – WORLD STATISTICS
(NA stands for Not Available/ Not Applicable, and APG
stands for Annual Percentage Growth)
|
Category
|
1969
|
1990
|
APG
|
1998
|
APG
|
2013
|
APG
|
|
Catholics
|
NA
|
877,723,000
|
NA
|
989,366,000
|
1.6
|
1,184,358,000
|
1.3
|
|
Priests
|
NA
|
402,243
|
NA
|
431,459
|
0.9
|
NA
|
NA
|
|
Priests
to Catholics ratio
|
NA
|
1:2182
|
NA
|
1:2293
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
|
Religious
|
NA
|
1,000.780
|
NA
|
928,653
|
-0.9
|
NA
|
NA
|
|
Religious
to Catholics ratio
|
NA
|
1:877
|
NA
|
1:1065
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
|
Catechists
|
NA
|
338,176
|
NA
|
439.134
|
3.7
|
NA
|
NA
|
|
Catechists
to Catholics ratio
|
NA
|
1:2595
|
NA
|
1:2253
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
This data is unfortunately incomplete. Nevertheless it
shows that the priests and religious’ ratio vis-à-vis the Catholic population
has increased. It is unfortunate that we don’t have data on catechists in
India. Back in 1912 we were told that in evangelization the Protestants were
more successful than Catholics because of the deployment of lay evangelists
(catechists). The success stories in Africa and South Korea are largely due to
lay evangelists. The same goes for Arunachal Pradesh, the only successful
mission story in post-Independent India, thanks also to the far sight of the
Salesians. Let us now examine the raw data on the church in India.
TABLE II –
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN INDIA
|
Category
|
1969
|
1990
|
APG
|
1998
|
APG
|
2013
|
APG
|
|
Catholics
|
7,607,286
|
13,424,000
|
3.6
|
14,908,000
|
1.4
|
17,535,429
|
1.2
|
|
Ecclesiastical Units (Dioceses)
|
84
|
122
|
2.1
|
140
|
1.9
|
166
|
1.2
|
|
Parishes
|
3513
|
6277
|
3.7
|
6277
|
NA
|
10715
|
NA
|
|
Mission Stations
|
10,025
|
17,467
|
3.5
|
17,467
|
NA
|
NA
|
NA
|
|
Institutions
|
8,877
|
22,865
|
7.5
|
22,865
|
NA
|
23,104
|
NA
|
|
Priests
|
8,680
|
15,072
|
3.5
|
22,974
|
6.6
|
22,451
|
-0.2
|
|
Brothers
|
2,136
|
1,584
|
-1.2
|
1972
|
3.1
|
2592
|
2.1
|
|
Sisters
|
30,305
|
62,283
|
5.0
|
76,150
|
2.8
|
94,025
|
1.6
|
This table shows that in several instances the CDI of 1998
has merely copied the data of 1990, hence is totally unreliable. The omission
of the number of Mission Stations in 2013 is also most unfortunate. It is time
that church statisticians realized that statistics, like accounts, are useless
if they are not accurate.
I will therefore restrict my comments to the apparently
correct data. We find that the Annual Percentage Growth (APG) of the Catholic
population has been constantly dropping, to a low of 1.2% in 2013. The most
interesting observation is on institutional growth. Since the figures of 1998
are incorrect, and that of 2013 prima facie wrong, I will restrict the
comparison to 1969 and 1990. This is also the first flush of the Vat II era. We
find that the APG of the Catholic population is 3.6%, and that of parishes is a
similar 3.7%, but that of institutions is 7.5%. This simply means that
institutions have grown at more than double the rate of the population or the
parishes. So much for post Vat II de-structuring! On the other hand the number
of priests has declined and the APG of sisters has dropped.
Since I live in north India, and have worked in several of
its dioceses, I have selected three of them for a comparative study. They are
the oldest dioceses of the north – Agra, Allahabad and Patna. Agra traces its
origins to the Jesuits at Akbar’s court in the 16th century, and
Allahabad and Patna to the Lhasa Tibet Mission of the Capuchins in the 18th
century. In the next table I have also included the number of Catholic students
in our own institutions. This is not to be found in the recapitulation of
statistics, so I had to do all the arithmetic myself.
TABLE III –
CATHOLICS IN OLD NORTHERN DIOCESES
|
Diocese
|
1969
|
1990
|
APG
|
1998
|
APG
|
2013
|
APG
|
|
Agra
|
4,965
|
7,880
|
2.3
|
11,155
|
5.2
|
16,807
|
5.8
|
|
Allahabad
|
7,920
|
8,215
|
0.2
|
11,135
|
4.4
|
11,180
|
Nil
|
|
Patna
|
41,331
|
58,495
|
-
|
60,605
|
-
|
65,864
|
-
|
Here I need to make some qualifying statements. History
tells us that there were about 2000 Catholics in Agra at the time of Emperor
Akbar, St Rudolph Aquaviva SJ and Francis Roth SJ, the Sanskrit scholar. What
happened to all of them? In recent times we see that Agra’s APG is 4 times the
national one. But this is nothing to boast about. It is largely due to
migration into Noida, a Delhi suburb. In 2013, of the 16,807 Catholics in the
Agra diocese, 8722 were in Noida alone, which is more than half the diocese
with a 500-year history.
In the case of Patna the APG cannot be accurately
determined, because the diocese had two bifurcations in the period under
review. Several districts were carved out in 1980 to form Muzzaffarpur diocese,
and again in 2006 to form Buxar diocese.
There are no such excuses for Allahabad, my parent
diocese, with which I am only too familiar. In absolute terms it has a negative
growth record. There are several reasons for this, but prudence prevents me
from elaborating here. But I will give two instances of large-scale apostasy.
Dostpur was the diocese’s biggest mission station. In 1969 it had 2013
Catholics, which is down to just 180 in 2013. Similarly the Mudila Mission had
752 Catholics in 1969, of whom just 61 remain in 2013. This is shocking! Who is
to blame? Since the bishop has just been removed for his anti-ecclesial
activities, I hope and pray that the Vatican will take serious note of this
before appointing a new bishop.
While two of these three dioceses have nothing to crow
about in the post Vat II era, look at the phenomenal growth in the educational
sector, and the inversely proportionate decline in the percentage of Catholic
students, as shown in Table IV below.
TABLE IV –
CATHOLIC EDUCATION
|
Category
|
1969
|
1990
|
APG
|
1998
|
APG
|
2013
|
APG
|
|
Agra
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students
|
3,347
|
25,380
|
31.3
|
43,407
|
8.9
|
79,976
|
5.6
|
|
Catholics
|
282
|
696
|
7.0
|
972
|
5.0
|
1834
|
5.9
|
|
Percentage of Catholic students
|
8.4
|
2.7
|
-
|
2.2
|
-
|
2.3
|
-
|
|
Allahabad
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students
|
13,950
|
35,264
|
7.3
|
44,082
|
3.1
|
52,804
|
1.3
|
|
Catholics
|
1,033
|
978
|
-2.4
|
1357
|
4.9
|
1385
|
0.1
|
|
Percentage of Catholic students
|
7.5
|
2.8
|
-
|
3.1
|
-
|
2.6
|
-
|
|
Patna
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students
|
20,385
|
NA
|
-
|
NA
|
-
|
47056
|
-
|
|
Catholics
|
6,330
|
NA
|
-
|
NA
|
-
|
3549
|
-
|
|
Percentage of Catholic students
|
31
|
NA
|
-
|
NA
|
-
|
7.5
|
-
|
This table establishes two things: (i) If there has been a
phenomenal growth in students then it is obvious that there has been
proportionate growth in institutions catering to them, and (ii) That the
percentage of Catholic students in our own institutions is inversely
proportionate to their growth. Such institutions are gradually losing their
specifically “Catholic” character, for which they claim “Minority” status from
the Govt.
I must now debunk another fallacy, that Catholic
institutions are at the service of the community. On 14th September
2001 I had presented a paper at the CBCI-AICU dialogue meeting at Bangalore
entitled “Catholic Education in India – A Lay Perspective”. Details are
available in my book “An Unfinished Symphony”. I had then taken data from the
CDI 1998, in which just 43 out of 140 dioceses had given details of the number
of Catholic students in their institutions. 43 dioceses are sufficiently
representative for a study.
In that analysis I also drew on the 1991 Census of India
information. According to it, 43.29% of the population was in the age group of
3-21 years; that is the age where they should be in school or college. The
Catholic population of the 43 dioceses was 4,337,223; hence the student
population would have been 1,877,584. But of these only 465,629 were in our
institutions – a mere 25%. This meant that 3 out of 4 Catholics in the age
group of 3-21 were not in Catholic institutions. The bishops were not willing
to swallow this bitter pill. This flies in the face of the Church in India
Seminar 1969 that unequivocally stated, “The first responsibility of the
Catholic school is to impart Catholic education to Catholic children. Admission
policies, such as criteria for selection, should conform to this primary
requirement” (Pg 356).
What is the scenario in 2013? With a gradual decline in
population growth one may hazard a guess that today 40% of the population would
be in the 3-21 years age group. Let us look at the three selected dioceses in
this light in Table V.
TABLE V –
CATHOLICS IN OUR INSTITUTIONS
|
Diocese
|
Catholics
|
Student
Population @ 40%
|
Actually in
our Schools
|
Percentage
|
|
Agra
|
16,807
|
6,723
|
1,834
|
27
|
|
Allahabad
|
11,180
|
4,472
|
1,385
|
31
|
|
Patna
|
65,864
|
26,346
|
3,549
|
13
|
Ironically, these
three dioceses have a very high priests to Catholics ratio: Agra (71/16,807)
1:237, Allahabad (92/11,180) 1:122 and Patna (154/65,864) 1:428, as against the
national ratio of (22,451/17,535,429) 1:781. Though this is just a sample
survey I daresay that what I said to the CBCI in 2001 is equally valid today,
that 3 out of 4 Catholic students are not in our own institutions. The causes
for this are too many to be enumerated here. But it is high time that the CBCI
and the CRI did a serious evaluation and course correction. As the old adage
goes, “History repeats itself because we don’t learn from the past”.
I will conclude this analysis with the comparative figures
of the Catholic population in 2003/2005/2013. Other than a few dioceses in the
Northeast almost all other dioceses show negligible or negative growth in
absolute terms. These figures should be an eye-opener: Allahabad – 12,540/
12,650/ 11,180, Alleppey – 165,680/ 165,680/ 167,128, Bettiah – 5,719/ 5,729/
5,843, Baruipur – 55,927/ 56,055/ 53,014. Belthangady – 20,178/ 20,100/ 20,047,
Bombay – 497,850/ 504,265/ 523,458, Chanda – 12,891/ 12,891/ 12,839,
Chikmagalur – 39,159/ 36,306/ 35,870, Daltonganj – 56,650/ 60,044/ 60,715,
Irijalakuda – 285,000/ 256,683/ 242,610, Jabalpur – 25,187/ 28,787/ 24,979,
Jhansi – 3,994/ 4,065/ 3,988, Kanjirapally – 172,050/ 172,050/ 166,342, Kannur
– 32,040/ 32,040/ 31,197, Krishnagar – 60,045/ 45,163/ 60,000, Lucknow – 6,980/
7,204/ 6,993, Madras-Mylapore – 341,314/ 341,314/ 331,881, Mananthavady –
165,653/ 167,000/ 167,590, Meerut – 26,873/ 27,192/ 27,176, Ootacamund –
84,000/ 84,500/ 81,447, Palai – 345,982/ 346,334/ 327,850, Palghat – 67,959/
66,061/ 59,588, Port Blair – 38,860/ 39,500/ 35,211, Quilon – 233,587/ 235,922/
217,797, Satna – 3,030/ 3,030/ 3,030, Shivagangai – 206,861/ 204,500/ 207,090,
Tellicherry – 278,804/ 278,804/ 278,925, Tiruvalla – 36,127/ 36,673/ 35,499,
Ujjain – 3,190/ 3,190/ 2,858, Vasai – 118,500/ 120,000/ 119,876, Vellore –
145,996/ 145,996/ 135,550, Verapoly – 269,593/ 263,337/ 247,326, Vijayapuram –
81,303/ 82,930/ 83,369.
From the above we find that this is an all-pervasive
malaise, irrespective of size, region, antiquity, rite or even of erstwhile
Latin Rite territories handed over to the Oriental Rites for “evangelization”.
I cannot, in conscience “conclude” this study which is,
indirectly, an analysis of the life and mission of the church in India. Two
things stand out – (i) The ecclesiology of Vat II has not been followed and the
findings of the Church in India Seminar 1969 have been frittered away, and (ii)
That a highly institutionalized and clericalised church is digging its own
grave. It is time for the Catholic Church in India to do an honest evaluation
and self-analysis and seek the answer to that eternal quest “Let anyone who can
hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev 3:22).
The Papal Nuncio and those responsible for the appointment
of bishops also need to pay heed. Merely making more dioceses and bishops
hasn’t helped, barring the Northeast. New bishops should be appointed based on
their pastoral and missionary experience, and not on their academic degrees or
proximity to Rome.
Catholic directories are fine, but without Christian
direction they are a mere scrap of paper. But for those who seek the truth, the
facts do indeed speak for themselves.
MAY 2013
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