A Transformative Empowerment

30 Years of Centres of Community Organisation in the Archdiocese of Bombay

When Jesus taught about the Final Judgment (cf. Matthew 25:31-46), He explicitly highlighted being fed when hungry, given drink when thirsty, welcomed when a stranger, clothed when naked, being visited when sick and when in prison, declaring, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” The Church has thus always reached out to the poor, teaching that we must give to the marginalised.

However, the contemporary understanding is that though charity is necessary, it does not empower those in need, but keeps them dependent. Many of us hesitate to donate. We fear that we’ll be approached repeatedly, or resent that otherwise capable but poor people are comfortable with our handouts, and don’t do anything for themselves. We all have our prejudices and biases against the poor, and may content ourselves by merely praying for them. In doing so, we lose out on the essence of Jesus’ teaching, and risk being ‘spiritually poor’ (lacking a sense of life’s meaning). We also risk eternal damnation. St John Chrysostom preached:

“Do you wish to honour the Body of the Saviour? Do not despise Him when He is naked. Do not honour Him in church with silk vestments while outside He is naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by His word, is the same that said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.” Honour Him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices, but golden souls.”

Two immediate outcomes of outreach in the Final Judgment message are a restoration of dignity to the excluded (sating hunger and thirst, clothing the naked) and a cultivation of relationships (welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick and those in prison). These encounters are deeply transformative when undertaken in the right spirit. We recognise that the poor are not objects of welfare; rather, they must be empowered to determine their own means of growth. We break out of our prejudices and biases when we encounter those in need and get to know them. Both the giver and the receiver are enriched, with the spiritually poor and the materially poor on a synodal journey of discovering answers to each other’s needs (cf. 4d of the Synthesis Report of the October 2023 session of the Synod on Synodality). Consequently, we witness a transformation of society – from inequality and exclusion to mutually enriched and empowered people.

For the past thirty years, the focus of the Centres of Community Organisation (CCOs) in our Archdiocese of Bombay has been exactly this. While the CCO reaches out to the marginalised, it does so with the objective of self-reliance and learning from them. The CCOs may not have transformed the entire Archdiocese, but have definitely made a difference to many, transforming small pockets of society in their own synodal ways. It is my hope that the CCOs and we take this transformative mission forward to the poor and the ‘new poor’, to those who do not have what they need to live a dignified life. These include not only the slum dwellers that CCOs are usually involved with, but also those affected by conflict and unrest, migrants, indigenous people, minorities, those suffering violence and abuse, abandoned elderly, and so on.

Nevertheless, people’s power has enabled the CCOs in our Archdiocese to reach a momentous milestone. On behalf of the Archdiocese of Bombay, I pay tribute to all the founders, men and women, who have initiated the CCOs; the priests, religious and grassroots workers who have been pioneers in envisaging a different type of reaching out to the poor; and to the CCO staff and workers who have persisted, despite sometimes receiving very little remuneration, compared to corporate work. May God bless all of them, their beneficiaries and benefactors, and may we all become golden souls who transform society!

Bishop Allwyn D’Silva