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Pope likely to visit India this year

George Iype in New Delhi

The Vatican has short-listed India as a destination Pope John Paul II should visit before December to inaugurate the celebrations of Jesus Christ's birth anniversary on the Asian continent.

Church sources said the Pope is keen to visit India for "several reasons," the most important being the recent attacks on missionaries.

During his visit, the head of the Catholic church will present a 100-page apostolic exhortation to a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Asia.

The special assembly is part of a series of meetings the Pope has convened on different continents to prepare the church for the next millennium.

Catholics the world over have started preparations to mark the beginning of the third millennium.

In several countries, the programme, a mix of festivities and piety, will extend for three years: 1999 as anticipatory, 2000 as the end of the second millennium and January 2001 as the beginning of the third millennium.

Though the location of the Pope's exhortation in Asia is yet to be finalised, Church officials said the Vatican has short-listed Hong Kong, India and Iraq as likely venues.

Initially, the Pope expressed a desire to visit Iraq -- the land of Abraham -- to call the world's attention to the suffering Iraqis endure daily under the United Nations embargo.

But anti-Christian violence in India and the church's desire to initiate a dialogue with Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam has led the Pope to plan a visit to India, rather than Iraq. Hong Kong church leaders are reportedly lobbying against a Papal visit as they feel it will strain relations between the church and the Chinese government.

If Pope John Paul II visits India, it will be his second trip to the country. He first visited India in 1986. Pope Paul VI was the first Pope to visit India in 1964.

How the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government will respond to a Papal visit is not known. Sangh Parivar outfits are bound to denounce the visit as the handiwork of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

While Indian church leaders are lobbying for the Pope's visit, officials say a decision will not be reached before June when the final draft of the exhortation is submitted for his approval.

An Indian church official said if the Pope visits India, his main concern will not be the anti-Christian attacks. "India will be the best country to focus on the need to improve the church's evangelisation programmes on the Asian continent," he told Rediff On The NeT.

"The Pope's visit will address the church's concerns throughout Asia. Against the backdrop of the anti-Christian campaign, a Papal visit can considerably encourage the church's missionary activities in the country," the official added.

Since the special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Asia began in April 1998, church leaders have been debating the church's role in relation to the continent's ancient faiths.

Two years ago, the Vatican issued a background paper, Lineamenta (outline), for Asian bishops. It called for the need to step up evangelisation programmes on the continent where Catholics account for just 2.8 per cent of the population.

The document said some mistakes in past missionary efforts and a current reluctance to insist on the need for salvation through Jesus Christ have blocked missionary efforts in many parts of Asia. It also said government restrictions on Christianity have hindered the church's growth in Asia.

The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences has admitted in its submissions that 'radical questions have been raised about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in the history of salvation' throughout the region.

The Papal visit and his exhortation is an attempt to address the complex realities the Church faces in Asia and the Vatican's continuing problems with theologians in countries like India and Sri Lanka.

Many in the church believe John Paul II's visit could give the Asian church a new direction. Ecclesia in Africa, a similar exhortation at the special assembly of the Synod of Africa by the Pope in 1994, is said to have kindled major pastoral initiatives on that continent.

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