By Anto Akkara
Catholic News Service
COCHIN, India (CNS)- The Catholic Bishops in Kerala State – the heartland of Christianity in India – have called for austere and more spiritual celebration of Church feasts.
“The feasts are becoming less spiritual and more pompous and commercial. We need to take corrective steps,” Syro-Malabar Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, secretary-general of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, told Catholic News Service at the end of the assembly.
“The spiritual dimension of the feast is often lost in the eagerness to make the feasts colourful,” added the Trichur Archbishop.
In a statement after the council’s 8-10 June meeting, the Bishops said that “the undesirable practices that have crept into our feast celebrations should be avoided.”
“Celebrations of feasts should lead to spiritual awakening and renewal and foster community feeling,” said the statement by the Bishops who represented 30 dioceses in the state.
The Bishops urged the nearly five million Catholics in Kerala to be conscious of environmental pollution caused by fireworks, traffic jams and huge processions and arcades. Over the years, feast celebrations have become more colourful and competitive in Kerala – where Christians account for 19 per cent of the state’s 35 million people – with parishes trying to outdo each other with colourful lighting, fireworks, live bands and processions.
The feasts also become an occasion for heavy drinking.
Fr Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary-general of the Kerala Bishops’ council, told CNS that a detailed guideline on feast celebrations is being drafted. With Kerala having the highest alcoholism rate in the country, the Bishops have called for strengthening a temperance and prohibition campaign at the parish level and have urged each Catholic hospital to ensure it has adequate facilities to treat alcoholism.
“Educating the faithful on the spiritual dimension of feasts will also include discouraging liquor consumption in our families, especially during feasts,” added Fr Alathara.