U.S. Catholics Outsourcing Prayers to India

Date: Monday, June 14, 2004 11:15 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

June 14, 2004 - No. 1035

The Catholic Church is once again shortage-shouting that they can't
find enough priests. In the year 2002 I reported that 20% of the
Catholic priests in the U.S. are foreign born. (See "Foreign-born
priests ease shortage June 14, 2002"). H-1B and "R" visas are the most
widely used visas used to import priests, rabbis, Muslim clerics, and
other types of church personnel.

Catholic Church leaders are adopting the new trend in corporate
management to ease their "shortage" - they are outsourcing prayers to
India. Instead of a hotline to heaven, your prayers may be forwarded to
Kerala, India!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0613prayers13.html

U.S. Catholics outsourcing prayers to India

Saritha Rai
New York Times
Jun. 13, 2004 12:00 AM

BANGALORE, India - With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the
United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying
Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of
outsourcing.

American, as well as Canadian and European, churches are sending Mass
intentions, or requests for services like those to remember deceased
relatives and thanksgiving prayers, to clergy in India.

About 2 percent of India's more than 1 billion people are Christians,
most of them Catholics.

In Kerala, a state on the southwestern coast with one of the largest
concentrations of Christians in India, churches often receive
intentions from overseas. The Masses are conducted in Malayalam, the
native language. The intention - often a prayer for the repose of the
soul of a deceased relative, or for a sick family member, thanksgiving
for a favor received or a prayer offering for a newborn - is announced
at Mass.

The requests are mostly routed to Kerala's churches through the
Vatican, the bishops or through religious bodies. Rarely, prayer
requests come directly to individual priests.

While most requests are made via mail or personally through traveling
clergymen, a significant number arrive via e-mail.

In Kerala's churches, memorial and thanksgiving prayers conducted for
local residents are said for a donation of 40 rupees (90 cents),
whereas a prayer request from the United States typically comes with
$5, the Indian priests say.

Bishop Sebastian Adayanthrath, the auxiliary bishop of the
Ernakulam-Angamaly diocese in Cochin, a port town in Kerala, said his
diocese received an average of 350 Mass intentions a month from
overseas. Most were passed to needy priests.

In Kerala, where priests earn $45 a month, the money is a welcome
supplement, Adayanthrath said.

But critics said they were shocked that religious services were being
outsourced, a word that is normally used for clerical and other office
jobs that migrate to countries with lower wages.

In London, Amicus, the labor union that represents 1.2 million British
workers, called on the government and workers to treat outsourcing as a
serious issue.

In a news release, David Fleming, national secretary for finance of
Amicus, said the assignment of prayers "shows that no aspect of life in
the West is sacred."

"The very fabric of the nation is changing," he said. "We need to have
a long, hard think about what the future is going to look like."

However, congregations in Kerala say the practice of ordering prayers
is several decades old.

"The church is not a business enterprise, and it is sad and pathetic to
connect this practice to outsourcing software work to cheaper labor
destinations," said the Rev. Vincent Kundukulam of St. Joseph
Pontifical Seminary in Aluva, near Cochin.

In Bangalore's Dharmaram College, Rector James Narithookil said he
often received requests for Mass intentions from abroad, which he
distributed among the 50 priests in his seminary.

Adayanthrath said sending Mass intentions overseas is a way for rich
churches short on priests to share and support smaller churches in
poorer parts of the world.

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