The recent "Consultation on Priestly Formation in North India" held at Varanasi from February 23-March 1, 1982, was a major event in the history of the Church in North India. The Church in North India is really a "pusillus grex", a very tiny community of believers in Jesus Christ entrusted with the task of proclaiming him to over 300 million people. Besides being a small and scattered community, the followers of Jesus are burdened with the weight of a past associated with colonial powers and "foreignness" in theology, religious art, liturgy, dress and life-styles. All this is clearly reflected in the priest engaged in his ministry today.
The Varanasi Consultation was the first serious attempt to bridge the gap of cultural alienation and isolation that exists between the small community of Christians and the large masses of the people of North India. It was an attempt to begin to re-fashion a Church by creating a new image of the Catholic priest working in North India. This can be done only by changing radically, at least in part, the content and form of seminary training as it exists in North India today.
At this historic juncture in the life of the North Indian Church, the study made by Fr. Joseph Castellino, director of Nav Sadhana, the regional pastoral centre at Varanasi, is to be welcomed as a significant contribution towards creating a new type of priest with a truly Christian and, at the same time. truly Indian image, spiritually and culturally equipped to commune with the Indian masses and share with them the "unsearchable riches" of Jesus Christ. Originally this study was a thesis presented to the faculty of the East Asian Pastoral Institute of Manila under the title "How and Why a Priest in India should be both a Spiritual Guru and an Active Servant of the People according to Indian Authors between 1968-1978".
It is a very timely study furnishing the theological, kerygma-tic and pastoral infrastructure for incarnating the North Indian Church in the culture of North India. An authentic incarnation of the North Indian Church in North Indian culture can take place only when her bishops, priests and seminarians become truly "North Indians". Due to various historical factors, circum-stances and reasons, the North Indian presbyterium and seminary formation were directed towards the pastoral care of small Christian communities and the spiritual care of religious com-munities. The emphasis in seminary training, in general at least, was on preparing priests for the work of preserving the faith of the small Christian communities. No doubt, one may not easily generalize in these matters, for there were notable exceptions, especially in some tribal areas. But no one can fail to perceive the general trends and emphases in seminary training. Bishops and priests are seen and understood by the large North Indian masses more as administrators, organizers and pastors of their faithful than as spiritual men, disciples of Jesus Christ sent out to proclaim to all men the Good News of salvation in him.
As a result, the Church has failed to strike roots in the culture of the people and this cultural alienation prevents her from adequately and effectively proclaiming Jesus Christ. What is needed today is an authentic incarnation of the Church in the culture of the North Indian people. The incarnation of Christ was a twofold event. He "emptied" himself and assumed a concrete humanity within a concrete culture. He became like unto the people among whom he willed to be born, live and work. Self-emptying and self-assuming are the two aspects of the incarnation of Christ. The Church cannot do otherwise. There must be an ecclesial kenosis and assuming too. The Church in North India must empty itself of the present image of foreignness in religious worship and art forms, in language, dress, life-style, thought patterns, etc., that belong to a different age and culture. She must at the same time assume the "North Indian humanity" with its language, religious art forms, ways and methods of prayer, life-styles, etc. The struggles and aspirations of the North Indian masses must become its own and be reflected in her daily life, worship and concerns.
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