John O'Brien, CSSp
Pathways for the Church in Pakistan

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Christian praxis includes both action and reflection. Taking time to pause for reflection and evaluation is an essential element in any ecclesial journey. All the more so if a Church and the culture which surrounds it tend towards activism. By the same token, open-minded planning is an essential element in receptivity to the designs of providence. There are several indicators that the Church in Pakistan has reached that stage in its development where an overview and evaluation of the present situation is a necessary step in planning future priorities. Under God's grace it has much to rejoice in - although naturally, one of the things it would also wish to rejoice in is a willingness to be challenged to new initiatives, priorities and values. (The celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the Pastoral Institute in Multan and the publication by the Pakistan Episcopal Conference of the report "Changing Realities" represent two important attempts to read the signs of the times in relation to the future directions and priorities of the Church in Pakistan. There have been several other developments too - mostly, though not always of a positive nature - which demand our attention and evaluation. Worthy of mention is the renewal of interest in and commitment to various forms of adult catechesis as well as the growing awareness that more appropriate methods need to be found for the disbursement and evaluation of development aid. These events are first and foremost an invitation to dialogue and further reflection. The Second Millennium of the Incarnation - to be celebrated in the universal Church as a Year of Jubilee - invites a similar reflection: a taking stock; an act of repentance and hope; an opening of our collective mind and heart to the action of the Holy Spirit. Part of this repentance and openness is an intellectual conversion aimed at freeing our minds from inadequate or false assumptions, predispositions and priorities; and part of this intellectual conversion is the willingness to evaluate the status quo. The latter is the main focus of this article). Over the previous generations much has been achieved; or to rise above the language of success and failure, we can say that God has been faithful to his people here in Pakistan and the question may now be posed as to how we - in the on-going journey - may be faithful to God.

We may begin by attempting a first approximation at delineating some of the more obvious characteristics of the life of the Church here. Since the Church is a community which at one and the same time rejoices in the living presence of the Spirit of God and is permanently open to reform and renewal, we will attempt to describe both the "light" and the "shadow"; the positive and the negative. The willingness to do both together is an act of mature self-acceptance; neither evading reality nor manipulating it. Our readiness to deal in reality is an aspect of our rootedness in God who is Al-haq!

A) Strengths:

The Church which under God's grace, has come into being here in Pakistan has many fine qualities and strengths:

i. It continues to exist and grow in a non-Christian and non-supportive environment:

ii. It is very much a Church of the poor, God's chosen ones:

iii. It is engaged in an on-going and far-reaching practical ecumenism:

iv. It is a Church with a profound religious sensibility:

v. There is a growth in local vocations to ministry:

vi. At all levels it is socially involved; both "religiously" and "developmentally":

vii. It has a highly developed organisational infrastructure:

viii. Among the People of God there is a tangible love for "The Word":

xi. The Church membership has retained a strong cultural identity: the Church in Pakistan is very much a Pakistani Church.

x. The communities have a very strong identity as "Christians"

xi. Among Pakistani Christians there is a very solid sense of family and kinship.

xii. There is a strong devotional life with many indigenous resources; songs, pilgrimages, Marian meals etc.

This is the light; if there is light there is also shadow!

B) Shortcomings:

i. At nearly all levels, the Christian community can be easily divided by the factionalism (partibazi) which characterises social relations and by the consequences of other internalised oppression:

ii. It is a Church massively reliant on foreign money:

iii. It is constantly under threat externally and internally from fundamentalism and sectarianism:

iv. The Liturgy has been translated but not inculturated:

v. There is an impoverished Eucharistic sense:

vi. A dependency mentality is still very stong:

vii. Politically, psychologically and even physically it tends to be ghettoised:

viii. The culture is consolidated but seldom critiqued by ecclesial praxis and therefore not sufficiently enriched by faith:

ix. In general terms, the leadership remains authoritarian or patenalistic, reinforcing the dominant socio-political pattern rather than offering an evangelical alternative to it:

x. The dignity and role of women are scarcely recognised:

xi. There is little or no missionary outreach:

xii. It mirrors the society in that personal freedom and responsibility are not really valued above conformity.

C) Creative Tension

Because of the constant dynamic interchange between these sometimes complementary and sometimes divergent currents there are several points of creative tension in the life of the Church. Christian hope invites us to see these as points of creativity, inventiveness and growth: a call to become, in a more profound way, the community which is the sign of God's universal salvation in this present historical moment of the journey to freedom of the people of Pakistan as a whole.

For the purposes of facilitating further development of these ideas, I would now like to juxtapose these 12 attributes each with its light and shadow. What can emerge is a matrix of creative tension which can be the springboard for a programme of renewal.

CULTURE: FUNCTIONALITIES AND DYSFUNCTIONALITIES:

a) The Church will continue to exist and grow - mostly through the natural growth in the existing Christian population - which for demographic reasons is quite considerable. In its mentality and actions however, it is a microcosm of the surrounding culture with all the latter's vigour and vitality, as well as its dysfunctionalities. Our capacity to name the latter in an exercise of socio-cultural analysis needs to be matched by a capacity to observe how the Christian community tends to internalise them. (Socio-cutlural analysis can be difficult and demanding. The clearest indication of the strength and success of the socialisation process is how few people are capable of critiquing it. This holds true for just about every culture. It is an irony that people can be immensely proud of their culture - and justifiably so - and at the same time keenly aware of the injustice and violence in their society; and yet fail to see the connections between the two. For poverty, injustice and oppression persist not only because of the socio-economic structures which perpetuate them but also - and of equal importance - because of the cultural patterns which legitimate and transmit them. The inculturation of the Gospel includes the process of discovering in a given culture, the seedbed for a new and dynamic expression of the Christian faith; but equally, since all cultures institutionalise and legitimate a power structure, it includes the process of critiquing and transforming aspects of that culture in the light of ethical imperatives revealed in the living out of the Gospel). Because of the very particular history of socio-political oppression and marginalisation of our people, the internalisation of this oppression can give rise to pathologies with a consequent propensity towards horizontal violence that can run deep. The cultural reinforcement of these patterns can give rise to a form of oppression which in its own way is just as life-denying as the consequences of feudalism or militarism. At the same time this realisation needs to be tempered by taking cognisance of the fact that in the struggle against long-standing oppression, people in general adapt the only survival techniques available to them and that in turn, consolidates their attachment to them.

TRANSFORMATION OR DEPENDENCY:

b) By and large our Church is blessed through being rooted in the life of the poor and oppressed, and their struggle for dignity and equality and the transformation of society to which this points. The fundamentally feudal nature of society however - intensified by the authoritarianism of successive military dictatorships - as well as the internal colonialism in the wider society have tended to divert this transformative potential into an ever greater reliance on paternalism; and from an institutional point of view, on donations of foreign money. Although on the surface, the manner in which this is organised becomes ever more sophisticated and less crudely a matter of person-to-person handouts, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the basic pattern of dependency has in fact been consolidated. This has resulted in even less readiness to go down the road of self-reliance and transformative action.

In speaking of a Church of the poor, we should not overlook the fact that relative material prosperity among some sections of the Christian population is producing a class division within the Church itself. To the extent that the ostracising of groups like the families of sanitary workers by the wider society is mirrored - and therefore intensified - by a similar attitude among upwardly mobile Christians, serious questions may have to be asked about the hidden presuppositions in much of the Church's development programmes.

FUNDAMENATLISM OR CONTEXTUALISATION:

c) Great honour is given to the Bible and compared with many older and more developed Churches in other countries, there is real familiarity with its text and message. There is a richness here which cannot be overlooked. In fact it cries out to be contextualised and deepened. The singing of the Psalms in Punjabi is a very distinctive and enriching feature of church life here. Yet this esteem for Sacred Scripture could be undermining of a real sense of Church inasmuch as it is conceived in rather Islamic terms: there is an unspoken assumption (a false one) that the Bible functions in Church life and theology as the Quran sherif does in Islam. This leads to and is further exacerbated by the prevalence of a literalist and fundamentalist reading and preaching of the text. As a result, all sorts of self-appointed preachers abound, each offering a more exotic explanation and application of the text. Rivalries increase and with them, factionalism. There seems little sustained effort to promote a communitarian reading of Scripture, contextualised on the one hand, by the living tradition of the People of God and on the other, by the concrete struggle for justice and dignity which is the daily bread of our people.

Although at the level of the people's ordinary life especially in the area of marriage, there is a healthy practical ecumenism, there remains a serious doubt as to whether this is leading to an enriching cross-fertilisation among the different ecclesial communions. Rather, because of the overall fundamentalist approach to Scripture and the multiplication of sects, it may well be leading to a dilution of the ecclesial and sacramental sense. The result, instead of being a sharing of the highest common factor, may well be a reduction to the lowest common denominator. Moreover, the signs are that this underlying emphasis on "the book" - to be read privately at home - may have seriously diluted the perceived importance of gathering precisely as "Church". What in principle is an enrichment, may have become in practice an impoverishment of parish and ecclesial life.

RELIGIOSITY OF FAITH:

d) Anyone who has lived in a secularised society is immediately struck by the deep religious feeling in our society as a whole and also among our own people. This sense of the presence of God is not something to be simply taken for granted but constantly purified and enriched through spirituality. Yet as for example, the blasphemy laws indicate, strong religious feeling can be ethically ambiguous. It is not necessarily a measure of the faith that does justice and exercises itself in compassion and spirituality. In his own time, Jesus was not so much promoting religion in the face of irreligion, but purifying a religion caught up with the maintenance of oppressive social and ideological structures; replacing it with one based in spirit and truth, on an outreach to others in an attitude of service, rooted in the universal compassion of God for all his creatures.

In the present situation in Pakistan, the Church should not make the mistake of confusing religiosity with faith. Until the conventions of honouring the name of God in words, customs and buildings is translated into a willingness to reach out to our fellow humans and transcend our own personal and family ambition, society may indeed be religious in a socio-cultural sense, but the Christian concept of a faith expressing itself as love has scarcely taken root.

The question that arises here is the very one which has always faced the people of the Bible: not "is there a God?" but "what kind of god is God?" But this question arises not simply as an academic exercise to be solved in the seminary classroom but as a concrete project to be tackled in the way we structure our parish life and church commitments, including our institutions. For the object of our faith is not simply an omnipotent being whom we can supposedly beseech to bless and approve our social and material ambitions; but an endless, infinite love who empowers us to do justice to all as a way of sharing that same love with which he first loved us.

VOCATIONS: NUMBERS OR QUALITY:

e) There is a steady increase in vocations to the ministry of Sister and Father; less steady in the case of religious Brothers and perhaps a decline - at least in some Dioceses - in relation to the ministry of catechist. Padri both self-appointed and officially nominated, abound. Personnel as such is not a problem. Yet it would appear that searching questions may have to be asked in relation to training, lifestyle and ministerial approach. The traditional type of catechist may well be in the process of becoming outmoded due to - among other factors - a gradual rise in the standard of education among the Christian community. On the other hand, there is unquestion-ably a need for full-time married lay pastoral workers of high calibre and adequate preparation who would be adequately remunerated.

If there are questions to be asked about the training of catechists, there are even more pressing ones with regard to the training of priests. If the Church continues to depend - as, under present circumstances, it almost certainly will - on a mainly presbyteral model of leadership, then the intellectual calibre of the candidates for ordination as well as their spiritual motivation and capacity to acquire pastoral vision and skill, become issues of the utmost importance. While ordinations are increasing, the expectation that the Church could be led and serviced solely by local priests seems a long way from realisation because of an uneven growth in the number of ordinations in the different Dioceses, as well as the relatively significant numbers who continue to leave the ministry for a variety of reasons. Since trends in other countries make the assurance of a supply of presbyters from abroad somewhat problematic - even if that were to remain desirable - the training of suitable local lay people assumes even greater importance.

The ministerial potential of Sisters, except in educational and medical institutions, has scarcely been tapped. Sisters themselves need to search for an engaged way of living and serving in the Church which does not substitute the domesticity of "convent life" for the passionate commitment of "religious life". Their role in catechesis needs to be developed but in doing so, one needs to keep in mind that catechesis is an art and a skill and is not automatically given to those who have made religious profession. Virtually all religious congregations need to address the tension in their institutes between availability for the poor and the consolidation of their own institutes.

CONTROL OR ENABLEMENT

f) Whereas Christians in other countries have often appeared to suffer a deculturation process because of their conversion to Christianity, in Pakistan the local cultural identity has remained very strong. The particularly strong kinship patterns in Pakistani life afford a great sense of identity and security as well as a support system both in times of rejoicing and distress. Yet it may also be true that this incomparable sense of belonging with its many very positive aspects that should not be undervalued, also makes personal choice and a sense of personal responsibility somewhat problematic.

In various ways, the Church leadership at all levels, can be tempted to go along unquestioningly with these cultural presuppositions for they fit neatly into an authoritarian or paternalistic concept of authority and leadership. This is especially clear in relation to women and younger people. While this may make for simpler administration in the short term, it will not develop a sense of personal commitment and responsible service among the People of God and its leaders in particular.

The dialogue between culture and faith is not always a straightforward business. It is neither a case of submitting the indigenous culture to some supposedly classic faith-based culture rooted in a different experience, nor is it a matter of allowing the local cultural imperatives to be the judge of what aspects of the faith may be considered to be acceptable and life-giving. The relationship is much more dialectical and must include in the light of Gospel values, an analysis of the power structure in the local culture and an openness to critique of the cultural values which legitimate it. This process has scarcely begun. Not to begin it risks simply replicating this power structure in the organisation of the Church itself.

ACCOUNTABILITY OR SECURITY:

g) The Church in Pakistan is marked by a deep and enduring commitment to integral human development. Through provision of land, schools, hospitals, co-operatives, health programmes, youth movements and in countless other ways, the Church has reached out to the whole person in community. It has consistently avoided the alienation inherent in reducing the Gospel to a "purely religious" message and has remained sensitive and committed to the people in their struggle against poverty and exclusion.

The particular way this commitment continues to be expressed has given rise to a massive physical infrastructure so heavily dependent on external funding, that even when the resources are fully in place, their maintenance alone is beyond the financial scope of the Local Church - and if present policies are continued, will always remain so. There are huge implications here for the kind of Church we may wish to become and they have to be recognised and faced. Moreover there seems to be little accountability or evaluation either of the use of funds or even of the desirability or otherwise, of many of the projects for which they are obtained. In some cases, the organisation of this vast financial enterprise can exercise such a hegemony over the local Diocese that pastoral, liturgical and spiritual issues figure rather low on the real agenda. It may well be that dealing with this state of affairs is the single biggest challenge facing the Catholic Church in Pakistan at the present time.

There is the distinct but related question of examining Church-run institutions to see whom they serve and who benefits from them. It is by no means obvious that providing resources for the privileged will result in justice for the poor. At another level, the history of the Church in other countries shows that the progressive institutionalisation of Church personnel because of a greater and greater preoccupation with the maintenance of buildings and financial systems, has a disastrous effect on the linkage of Church ministers with the struggles of ordinary people. The result can often be an institutionalised Church existing for its own functionaries, leaving the people to find their own way in either popular devotionalism or various strands of fundamentalism.

Because of this over-involvement in institutions and the preoccupation of the leadership with financial matters, catechetics and liturgy always take second place to "development". An adult catechesis is not developed; liturgy is not inculturated; the celebration of the sacraments becomes minimalistic and perfunctory. The result can be a church of brick and cement but not of believing, worshipping people.

GHETTOISATION OR WITNESS:

h) Unquestionably, Christians in Pakistan are a marginalised minority. While it might be an exaggeration to say that they are a persecuted minority, it is nonetheless true that in a variety of ways, their rights are scarcely respected. Indeed as the events of Shantinagar and Khanewal indicate, and before that the murder of Manzoor Masih, they are in a real sense, under threat: tolerated by but scarcely integrated into society. On the other hand, the question that arises for the Church and in a particular way, for the Church leadership, is what kind of minority it wishes to be.

There is great evangelical potential in being a minority for developing a strong sense of identity and of differentiation from the surrounding society and its values system - leading in turn to a ministry of witness. On the other hand, there is the temptation to further consolidate the sense of ghettoisation that already exists. The separate electorate introduced during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, is a case in point. Very quickly certain power groups saw how their vested interests could be promoted by collaborating with something that was introduced as an instrument of marginalisation and disenfranchisement. After a number of years the question arises as to; in what way if any, Christian politicians are different from their counterparts in society at large. If the emerging process is one of clientalism, opportunism and dependency - all conducted on the basis of chai-pani - the very mirror image of the dysfunctional politics in the society at large, then in what way is it a leaven in the mass or a sign of an alternative society? Some will argue that things simply cannot be otherwise but if that is the case, then what is to be gained from simply going along with something so fundamentally flawed?

The very successful campaign on the issue of the religious clause in the identity card when the proposed sectarian legislation was defeated by grassroots action, illustrates the tremendous potential for identity and self-respect that lies in peaceful and dignified campaigning for what most people of goodwill immediately recognise as just and fair. Could not the same be true for such issues as return of schools, the teaching of Christian doctrine to Christian children in Christian schools, an integrated electorate, repeal of offensive laws such as Hadood and blasphemy ordinances?

EUCHARIST OR BIBLIOLATRY:

i) A question that sorely needs to be tackled is how a Church with a deep religious sense, rooted in a culture where various kinds of shared meals are cultural imperatives, among a people with a strong devotional sense, has been markedly unsuccessful in developing a strong Eucharistic tradition. Up and down the country the Eucharistic celebration is characterised by poor and sporadic attendance and participation, indifferent presidency, liturgical texts not readily comprehensible, and an altogether inadequate understanding of the catechesis involved.

When the Church in Rahim Yar Khan was attacked some years ago the theft of the Bible was continually bemoaned in various meetings all over the country, but even in specifically Catholic circles, the desecration of the Blessed Sacrament was scarcely mentioned.

Some reasons for this underdeveloped sense of Eucharist are:

i. the internalisation of the "religion-of-the-book" ideology;

ii. the shortage of priests coupled with an apparent gap in the training of catechists to conduct religious services which link up in various ways with the Eucharist, leaving them to conduct ill-thought out and unstructured "Bible services" in the style of Padri;

iii. a non-inculturated liturgy which (a) scarcely draws on the religious symbols in the local cultures and (b) presents a translation of the Roman Missal which while literally accurate, is often beyond the comprehension of many worshippers;

iv. an on-going reduction in the real - as distinct from the notional - importance attached to adult catechesis. This means that catechesis ends with the preparation of children for first Holy Communion. This preparation in turn, often consists largely in teaching them a certain number of prayers and a few catechism answers and that is considered to be the end of the matter. The fact that the Church in practice, allows this situation to continue, reinforces in the people the impression that Eucharsit is not in fact, a central feature of Church life and Christian identity.

v. a strongly verbalistic or logocentric catechesis as distinct from an exploration of the symbolic world of the people.

vi. the divorce between liturgy and the struggle for justice.

GROWTH OR STAGNATION:

j) There is great potential in our Church. Three areas in particular are worth mentioning (i) the ministry of women; (ii) the development of a spirit of prayer, especially contemplative prayer and (iii) outreach to people of other faiths.

In areas such as participation in the Eucharist and in different kinds of groups as well as the religious education of children and vocations to the religious life, the strong Christian commitment of women is clearly evident. Moreover there is growing evidence of a tacit or implicit openness to the person of Jesus and the beauty of the vision of life he proposes, among educated women of the majority community. Given these and many other factors - among them basic justice and common sense - it has become strictly necessary to involve women in the process of thinking out new models of women's ministry in the Church.

While prayer is hugely important in peoples' lives, many think of it as a process of constructing ever longer and longer recitations replete with high-sounding clichés. Many of our Church ministers especially catechists, but also Fathers, seem to be copying this practice as if "by their many words they may be heard" (Mt 6:7). There seems little evidence of actually teaching people how to pray; teaching them the value of silent communion with God.

The Church leadership seems to forget that in the Sufi tradition - which communicated the Islamic faith to the majority community - the emphasis was on interiorised religious experience.

The love people have for their faith barely translates into any effort to communicate the joy of this faith to others whether non-Christians or lapsed Christians. The Church does not exist for itself but for the sake of its mission. Theologically, mission - rooted in the Trinitarian life - is the prior reality. Remaining closed to mission and turning in on oneself leads to stagnation and selfishness. Even in the outreach to the Katchi Kohlis, Parkari Kohlis and Marwari-Bhils, the on-going long-term commitment of local Church personnel is all too rare - although there are some edifying examples. Local Church personnel who get involved in this work rarely receive the encouragement they deserve and need and are sometimes accused of abandoning "their own".

FOCI FOR RENEWAL AND ADVANCE:

The truly great achievements of the past and present can launch us forward in hope. Building on the resourcefulness and vitality of the present, the challenges to be faced can be confronted with a sense of anticipation and adventure. In particular attention will need to be paid to the following areas of Church life.

i. Education for personal and social transformation.

ii. Building structures of growing self-reliance.

iii. Teaching the Bible in its ecclesial and social transformational context.

iv. Clearly communicating that membership of the Church is not only a means of receiving but an opportunity to serve and develop a spirituality of willing service.

v. Recruiting and training of full-time lay pastoral workers or catechists with a higher standard of education, a more clearly defined pastoral and para-liturgical role and an adequate system of support.

vi. Putting the dialogue between faith and culture onto the theological agenda both in houses of theological formation and in the pastoral deliberations of the Church leadership.

vii. Devoting resources in a serious way to adult catechesis.

viii. A renewed emphasis on the centrality of the Eucharist in Christian life including catechesis, liturgical inculturation and para-liturgies with its linkage to the struggle for justice and dignity.

ix. Evaluating institutions and works primarily on the basis of how they serve the poor.

x. Setting realistic goals re. dependence on foreign money and growing financial self-sufficiency.

xi. Developing the ministry of women.

xii. Building on and enriching the sense of prayer in the community through teaching people deeper ways to pray, opening houses of prayer and becoming a recognisably praying community.

xiii. Missionary outreach - different to proselytism - to lapsed Christians and peoples of other faiths.

(It is only fair to point out that there are many fruitful and exciting pastoral initiatives already underway encompassing some of the pastoral directions outlined here. One thinks of the efforts at an inculturated theology in groups like Mukhtaba-e-Anawim; the co-operative movement, not least in the form it has taken among the Marwari-Bhils; the evidence of a renewed commitment to catechetics in the various diocesan centres; the growing awareness among women's groups; sung Eucharistic liturgies in some parishes; the training for the transformation programme in Multan as well as many prayer groups. One should also mention the work of justice, the various campaigns for human rights often conducted in liaison with progressive groups among the majority community; and in particular, the efforts to organise and empower the sanitary workers. This is by no means an exhaustive list. A very necessary task for the work of renewal is to list these initiatives in a more complete way; to outline their approaches and to evaluate their potential for renewal. Taken in concert they may well represent the voice of the Holy Spirit for the future of our Church).

CONCLUDING REMARKS:

These are the views of one person. Though necessarily limited in perspective and scope, they are the fruit of involvement, initiative, observation and dialogue; as well as much trial and error. By the nature of the case they are partial and open to critique and amplification. They are presented to facilitate discussion; in the form of an invitation to move towards a degree of consensus as to where we are and how we should like to move forward. Nothing remains the same and all things change; to refuse to move forward is to stagnate. But that moving forward has to be thoughtful, purposeful and spirit-filled.