High Court ruling may leave Churches near Schools in quandary during Midnight X-Mas Eve celebrations
"The court has given every community a day to use loudspeakers. For Christians, it is Dec 25..."
Bombay, India, Dec. 11 - A High Court ruling may force two Churches - The Holy Family Church and OLPS Church in Chembur - to conduct a Midnight Christmas Mass without loudspeakers. The reason: the two churches are close to schools.
A Sept. 26 Bombay High Court ruling prohibits the use of loudspeakers in the silent zone, which includes educational institutions, courts, hospitals and religious places.
While Holy Family Church says it may conduct the mass without loudspeakers, OLPS claims it has permission to use loudspeakers till 10 pm. Churches not in the silent zone can continue the Dec 24 midnight mass till 11.30 pm.
Father Anthony Cardozo of OLPS Church says, "On Christmas, we have the mass in the ground and we have permission to use loudspeakers till 10 pm." The Chembur police station, however, denies having granted permisison to OLPS for use of loudspeakers in the ground.
The Tilak Nagar police, in whose jurisdiction Holy Family Church falls, say they are simply following the high court order. Says a cop, "It is true that the school is not in session at night so loudspeakers will not disturb students. But the high court judgment says loudspeakers should not be used within 100 metres of an educational institution. It is really how we interpret the law."
Like Holy Family and OLPS, several schools run by Christian missions have a church in same premises.
The interpretation of the order surely does not help Father Donald Rodrigues of Holy Family Church, who has to address a crowd of 1,500 devotees on Christmas Eve, almost double the crowd of 800 it attracts for a Sunday mass. "Our church has a capacity to seat 800 people. On Christmas Eve, we usually conduct the mass in the ground and use loudspeakers for the service," says Father Rodrigues.
"The court has given every community a day to use loudspeakers. For Christians, it is Dec 25
