Word: raphael
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...have its own Super Bowl - a good thing, that - but it never lacks for head-to-head competitions. Picasso and Matisse played show-me-what-you-got for decades, continually rolling out works meant to show up the other guy. Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael all kept a cool eye on each other. And there's a brisk little chapter in the history of Abstract Expressionism that could fairly be called De Kooning vs. Pollock...
...spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Father Paul Thelakkat, said Raphael's allegations stem from "some wounded feelings," which Raphael should have raised with the church instead of "maligning the life of religious nuns." He added that Raphael's allegations are "not especially serious." "The church never claims there's no sin within the church," he said. "We're not angels - we're human beings of flesh and blood - so some omissions and failures can happen. But the church is perennially on a path of renewal and reformation. We're trying to deal with these problems...
...been more forthcoming about the problems it faces. Sathyadeepam, Kerala's Catholic weekly, released a report in January that said almost 20% of the region's nuns - the church says there are about 45,000 - feel "insecure or unaccepted" in their convents. Cases of nuns speaking up like Raphael are still rare, but there may be an avalanche building up due to the changing social scene. Earlier, girls from disadvantaged families embraced the vows, finding that life in a convent, while hard, saved them from the worst of deprivation. But once in an order, they found it difficult to complain...
...seen as a passport to a foreign post and big bucks - and many youngsters are not up for a lifetime of celibacy and a religious vocation. And though figures have not been collated, activists claim a steady decline in the number of young people taking the vows or, like Raphael, renouncing them altogether...
...asked about the numerous allegations of sexual abuse in the church, he said, "[Alleging sexual abuse] is an old tool of hitting at the ecclesiastical society. It's nothing new. It happened 2,000 years ago too." Father Thelakkat's reaction is somewhat similar. Though he doesn't deny Raphael's allegations, he refuses to acknowledge their seriousness either: "The incidents may be true, but they are isolated cases." Clearly, it's time to connect the dots and see the bigger picture...