Outsourcing Prayer
Mood:
Massed
Read/Post Comments (0)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FE01Df05.html
Outsourcing religion, on a wing and a prayer
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - One area of outsourcing is not taking away jobs in the West, but it is certainly making quite a few Christians say "Oh Jesus". A mix of economics and a shortage of priests in Western Europe and the United States have fueled the outsourcing of the "holy mass" to parishes in the south Indian state of Kerala.
This is how it works: mass intentions - requests for services, such as thanksgiving and memorial masses for the dead - are made at the foreign dioceses and then passed to churches in Kerala, to priests and congregations with time on their hands. The communication is usually via email. As there is no official channel, many intentions are through personal relations of the priests, who may have friends abroad.
If a devotee offers a mass in, say, New York, it may be performed in Thrissur. Each mass is said in front of a public congregation in Malayalam, the local language. Reports from Kerala say bishops have had to limit priests to just one outsourced mass a day to prevent them from denying others the opportunity to earn a higher income. There is a dominant Christian population in Kerala, with churches dotting the urban and rural landscape.
Referred to as "dollar masses", several reports on prayer outsourcing have been appearing in the local press in Kerala due to the incomes generated among local churches. "Most of these requests are made from the US and European countries. These mass intentions are usually routed through dioceses and handed over to relatively less busy parishes," Jose Porunnedam, chancellor of Syro-Malabar Church, told a local daily newspaper.
(Much more at site...)
Outsourcing religion, on a wing and a prayer
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - One area of outsourcing is not taking away jobs in the West, but it is certainly making quite a few Christians say "Oh Jesus". A mix of economics and a shortage of priests in Western Europe and the United States have fueled the outsourcing of the "holy mass" to parishes in the south Indian state of Kerala.
This is how it works: mass intentions - requests for services, such as thanksgiving and memorial masses for the dead - are made at the foreign dioceses and then passed to churches in Kerala, to priests and congregations with time on their hands. The communication is usually via email. As there is no official channel, many intentions are through personal relations of the priests, who may have friends abroad.
If a devotee offers a mass in, say, New York, it may be performed in Thrissur. Each mass is said in front of a public congregation in Malayalam, the local language. Reports from Kerala say bishops have had to limit priests to just one outsourced mass a day to prevent them from denying others the opportunity to earn a higher income. There is a dominant Christian population in Kerala, with churches dotting the urban and rural landscape.
Referred to as "dollar masses", several reports on prayer outsourcing have been appearing in the local press in Kerala due to the incomes generated among local churches. "Most of these requests are made from the US and European countries. These mass intentions are usually routed through dioceses and handed over to relatively less busy parishes," Jose Porunnedam, chancellor of Syro-Malabar Church, told a local daily newspaper.
(Much more at site...)
Read/Post Comments (0)
Previous Entry :: Next Entry
Back to Top
