BBN (Bhumel Broadcasting Network)

 The income generation and charity are the two words that are central to all religions and voluntary organizations. The concept of charity is found in the Jewish teachings "Tzedakah" is the Hebrew word used for "charity" in English. The word charity is giving aid, assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy causes. However, the nature of tzedakah is very different from the idea of charity. ‘The word "tzedakah" is derived from the Hebrew root Tzadei-Dalet-Qof, meaning righteousness, justice or fairness. In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act; it is simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving the poor their due.’

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 The concept “charity” is the nucleus of the religions of Jewish origin and now it is slowly pervading into peoples of all nations and religions. The charity was understood that people contribute a portion of their wealth for the supportive works done for the economically poor class.   Catholic Church in India carried out charity in this fashion till 1970s. The Catholic Church as a whole turned the contributions from people across the globe to establish educational institutions across the Country.  For most educational institutions the objective was purely people’s welfare till last a few decades. In the present times the including a good number of Church educational institutions have become more profit making than charity oriented. This fact is a matter of concern for the people and Governments as well. It is almost readable from the facts that within a matter of a decade the Governments will revive the policy regarding education. It will no more be easy to wear the garb of charity and do business in Education.

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 The Catholic Church has to rethink the concept of income generation and charity apart from its elite educational institutions. It would be a good case to study, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne received a gift to establish a Catholic news paper which was considered a non-charitable purpose. The Church put up the logic that profit will be used for charitable purposes. The Court agreed the views said charities are required to be not-for-profit, but that does not mean that they cannot make a profit. Quoting this case the Melbourne High Court permitted the activity that was not part of the Statutes of Elizabeth Society. The Court said, ‘ operating a commercial enterprise to generate funds for a charitable purpose is not in itself considered a charitable purpose while the motive for establishing a commercial activity was `no doubt religious and its profits were no doubt used exclusively in aid of the teachings, activities and purposes of a religious body'. It is a model that can be thought of for Indian Catholic Church.

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 The above mentioned idea is in line with the emerging principles of charity, do charity from income generated from business. Today almost all the corporate houses have their own charity organizations as a requirement to carry out the social responsibility.  The Church will have to set up income generation projects following all business norms but apart from the priests and nuns. Church can take up two most pressing needs of India. The first is employment generation or service sector businesses; the second is the low cost housing. The income generation projects have to be in the hands of professional laity assisted by a few clergy or nuns. If this method works then a major chunk of priests and nuns will be back to mission. We can imagine, if ninety percentage of priests and nuns turns to active mission works, then, who can stop the spread of Gospel? It may sound crazy but why not we dream of a bright mission future.



- By Father Anand Muttungal

Madhya Pradesh