അമേരിക്കയിലെ പ്രമുഖ യുവവൈദികനായ ഫാ. സതീഷ് ജോസഫിന്റെ (ഫാ.സതീഷ് ആന്റണി ജോസഫ്,
കൊച്ചുമോന്‍) ധര്‍മ്മപ്രബോധനങ്ങള്‍ ലോകമെമ്പാടുമുള്ള പതിനായിരങ്ങളെ
ആകര്‍ഷിക്കുന്നു.
എടത്വ കരിക്കംപള്ളില്‍ നന്നാട്ടുമാലില്‍
പുത്തന്‍പുരയ്ക്കല്‍ അന്തോനിക്കുട്ടിയുടേയും സാറാമ്മയുടേയും മൂത്തമകള്‍
ലിസമ്മയുടേയും കൂളത്തൂര്‍ മേലേട്ടുകൊച്ചി കുട്ടപ്പന്റേയും മകനാണ് ഫാ.സതീഷ്.
സഹോദരന്‍ സതീഷ്. (ഭോപ്പാല്‍).
ബാംഗളൂരിലെ ദിവ്യരക്ഷക സന്യാസ സഭയില്‍
1983-ല്‍ ചേര്‍ന്ന സതീഷ് 1986 ജൂലൈ 27-ന് ആദ്യവ്രതവാഗ്ദാനവും 1994 ഏപ്രില്‍ 25-ന്
നിത്യവ്രതവാഗ്ദാനവും നടത്തി. 18 വര്‍ഷമായി വൈദികന്‍.
യുണൈറ്റഡ്
സ്റ്റേറ്റ്‌സ് ഒഹിയോ ഡേയ്ടണിലെ ഇമ്മാക്കുലേറ്റ് കണ്‍സെപ്ഷന്‍, സെന്റ് ഹെലെന്‍
ഇടവകകളിലെ അസോസിയേറ്റ് പാസ്റ്ററാണ് സതീഷ് ഇപ്പോള്‍. കമ്മ്യൂണിക്കേഷനില്‍ മാസ്റ്റര്‍
ഡിഗ്രിയും തിയോളജിയില്‍ ഡോക്ടറല്‍ ഡിഗ്രിയും നേടിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. എല്ലാ ഞായറാഴ്ചയും
വൈകുന്നേരം ഡേയ്ടണില്‍ നടത്തുന്ന വിശുദ്ധ കുര്‍ബാനയില്‍ നൂറുകണക്കിന് ആള്‍ക്കാര്‍
പങ്കെടുക്കുന്നു. ഇറ്റെ മിസ എസ്റ്റ് മിനിസ്ട്രിയുടെ സ്ഥാപകനാണ്.
മുതിര്‍ന്നവര്‍ക്കായുള്ള വിശ്വാസ രൂപീകരണമാണ് ലക്ഷ്യമാക്കുന്നത്. ഫാ. സതീഷിന്റെ
പ്രസംഗങ്ങള്‍ കേള്‍ക്കാനുള്ള സൗജന്യ ഐഫോണ്‍, ഡ്രോയിഡ് ആപ്‌സുകള്‍
ലഭ്യമാണ്.
ഫാ.സതീഷ് ജോസഫിന്റെ ദൈവവചനപ്രഘോഷണങ്ങളും ധ്യാനപ്രസംഗങ്ങളും
വിശ്വാസസമൂഹത്തില്‍ ആഴത്തില്‍ സ്വാധീനം ചെലുത്തുന്നുണ്ട്. നിരവധി രാജ്യങ്ങളില്‍
ഇതിനകം ധ്യാനപ്രസംഗങ്ങള്‍ നടത്തി. ആധുനിക സാങ്കേതിക വിദ്യയുടെ സാധ്യതകള്‍ ദൈവവചന
പ്രഘോഷണത്തിനു പ്രയോജനപ്പെടുത്തുന്നു. ആഴത്തിലുള്ള വിഷയങ്ങള്‍ ലളിതമായി
അവതരിപ്പിക്കുന്നതിനു ഫാ.സതീഷിനു പ്രത്യേക കഴിവുണ്ട്.
ലഭിക്കുന്ന ചോദ്യങ്ങള്‍ക്കെല്ലാം മാതൃകാപരമായി മറുപടി നല്കുന്നതും ഫാ.സതീഷിന്റെ പ്രത്യേകതയാണ്.
ഫാ.സതീഷിന്റെ പ്രഭാഷണങ്ങളുടെ വീഡിയോകളും പോഡ്കാസ്റ്റുകളും ധാരാളമായി ഇന്റര്‍നെറ്റില്‍ ലഭ്യമാണ്.
'ഗ്ലോബലൈസേഷന്‍ ആന്‍ഡ് മിലിറ്റന്‍ഡ് ഹിന്ദു നാഷണലിസം: ദ് ന്യൂ കോണ്‍ടെക്‌സറ്റ്
ഫോര്‍ തിയോളജി ഇന്‍ ഇന്ത്യ' എന്ന പുസ്തകം (248 പേജുകള്‍) ദൈവശാസ്ത്ര
മുന്‍കൈഎടുക്കലിനെക്കുറിച്ചു വിശദീകരിക്കുന്നു.
ഫാ.സതീഷ് ജോസഫിന്റെ
ലേഖനങ്ങളില്‍ ഒന്ന് മാതൃകയ്ക്കായി.. ഒരുമിച്ചു പ്രാര്‍ഥിക്കുന്ന കുടുംബം.
The Family That Prays Together...
I am from India.
I can trace my ancestry back to 1823 and if I want, beyond that too. People find
it difficult to connect my being Indian and Catholicism. Most people presume
that I am a recent convert to Catholicism. In fact, as far back in 1823 my
family was Catholic (Eastern Catholic). For generations, then, faith has been
passed along with untiring zeal and passion. When I was a child, my father often
repeated the well-known adage: 'The family that prays together stays together.'
And I believed it. That is, until now.
About my childhood family – it was
mom, dad, my brother and I. Mom and dad both worked for the government. That
meant financial security even though the income was meager. But what set us
apart was that we were a praying family. Ours was the model family in the
parish. Priest and nuns often came and dined at our home and our family was
often quoted as the Christian family par excellence. We prayed each morning and
night – together. Before my brother and I left to the Catholic school my parents
could barely afford, we would gather together and pray. After dinner each night,
we prayed again, sometimes for a good half hour. There was not a Sunday we
missed mass whether it was the Cricket World Cup or plain tiredness. For the most
part we prayed together and stayed together.
That was thirty years back
when we were my brother and I were kids. I went on to the Seminary, was ordained
in 1994 and today I am a priest of 18 years. Here is my greatest question
though. Why did the family that prayed together not stay together? It happens
that today my only brother is something between an agnostic and an atheist. He
could care less for the Catholic Church that the stray dogs that roam the
streets of India. He loves and respects me not because I am a priest but because
I am his brother.
My brother is not a bad guy. There was a time when he
baptized his only daughter, participated in her First Holy Communion event and
even today, will drive my parents and me to church when we visit him. But at the
heart of his passion are the people of Bhopal, who was affected by the Bhopal
gas tragedy of 1984. The Union Carbide factory (now Dow Chemicals) spewed
poisonous gas and thousands of people died while others remain affected for
decades or even generations to come. This population was neither compensated
justly nor their needs met adequately. My brother works for the government
during the week and on the weekends, he'd rather be with the people in their
struggle cope with daily life than being at Church.
You may ask why he
could not do both? 'Because,' he says, 'the church is only interested in getting
people to church! The question is why does the church not go the people?' He was
referring to the local church's lack of involvement in the struggles of the
people of Bhopal. At other times he has said to me, 'There is a reason why
Mother Teresa has been already a saint and Archbishop Oscar Romero will never be. I
think it is because one took care of the poor whereas the others questioned the
system that creates the poor. Where is the church and on whose side is the
church today?'
I know numerous once-upon-a-time-church-going-people who
think similarly. They are young and adults alike whose alienation from the
church is a moral stance. The abuse crisis and the immunity of top leadership,
the concentration of decision making in the hands of a male dominated hierarchy,
the unwillingness to even dialogue about women priesthood, and even the recent
liturgical changes are among the reasons why some have alienated themselves from
the church.
Our archdiocese is embarking on a major initiative called
'Christ at the Center.' The goal is to 'explore the challenges that families
face today and discover with one another viable tool and methods for
evangelizing and ministering to the church of the home.' Perhaps, one of the
assumptions of this initiative is that if we can educate the parents about
faith, then children will keep the faith.
My experience tells me that
educating families in faith and providing them the resources for evangelizing
and ministering to the church of the home, while beneficial, is not a panacea
for a vibrant church community. Because, if I consider my family, the family
that prayed together did not necessarily stay together. For that, the church too
must change. For example, the church must ask itself if its paternalistic
organizational structure is healthy for its own good? Is the silencing and
excommunication of reasonable theological voices the best way to deal with
dissent? We made organizational changes as a result of the abuse crisis – but
have we been church to the victims and their families the way Christ would? In
the recent liturgical changes did we settle for uniformity rather than unity?
Why do people who migrate to evangelical churches talk about their faith journey
in the Catholic Church as devoid of the experience of God? Why do scores of
people find themselves spiritually starved after their weekly celebration of the
Eucharist? These are the kinds of questions that people who grew up Catholic and
have since conscientiously alienated themselves from the church are
asking.
Meanwhile, my parents and numerous elderly parents who hurt
because their children have left the church have their question, 'What did we do
wrong?' I often say to them, 'It is not your fault.' My family prayed together
too but did not stay together in faith. That makes is sad for my family and for
my church.
