Of Political Theology

Of the many homilies I heard during the recently concluded Exposition of the Sacred Relics of St. Francis Xavier, there was one which particularly stood out for reasons of expounding a very political theology. This homily was that of the Apostolic Nuncio to India, Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, delivered on the fourth of December, the fourteenth day of the exposition. 

In his homily, the Nuncio referred to the rather impertinent demands made to test the DNA of St. Francis Xavier. Responding to this suggestion, Archbishop Girelli said; “Actually, the DNA [of St. Francis Xavier] resides in his faith in Christ; and whoever is interested to know it can find it in every Catholic in Goa, since every Catholic Goa is intimately united to St. Francis Xavier and receives from him his imprint, his Christian legacy. We are all Francis Xaviers in Goa. He is the model of our lives.”
Now some readers may dismiss these words as mere rhetoric. However, it is not mere words but fact, since it was on this rhetoric that history has been built, and this history has had very real implications for the lives of thousands of contemporary Goans – both Catholic and otherwise.

The fact that I refer to is the fact of baptism, which the pre-liberal Portuguese state in India took very seriously. Once a person was baptised, they became Catholic, and in principle were entitled to all the rights that other Catholics were entitled to. To this early Portuguese state in India, to be Catholic was to be synonymous with being Portuguese. As a result, those who were baptised, were now considered for all practical purposes, Portuguese. Given that these Portuguese did not live in a liberal world, with its rhetoric of equality, it did not mean that all Portuguese would be treated equally. However, they were all treated as Portuguese in the graded society that they lived in. And the long legacy of this Catholic politics resulted in the fact that even today the Portuguese-ness of the Goan (both Catholic and non-Catholic) is an undeniable fact of law! 

Francis Xavier, as he was then, may have been born Basque, but when he passed through the port of Lisbon and headed to Goa, and indeed as he moved through the territories of the Portuguese crown in Asia, he would have operated as Portuguese. But Portuguese or otherwise, both he and the Portuguese crown were equally interested in that most noble of projects, the winning souls for Christ. Once these souls submitted to Christ in baptism, then as Archbishop Girelli pointed out, they were all equally imprinted with Christ.

Any argument in political theology must take theological truths as its point of departure. In this case, Archbishop Girelli is pointing to the fact that those who are baptised in Christ partake in His Spirit; and those who commune of His body, partake of His flesh. Having eaten of Him, He becomes an integral part of them, and they in Him. They are all one in Christ, just as St. Francis Xavier was one with Christ. Ergo, at the spiritual level, which any political theologian must take seriously, Christ is very much part of the DNA of every Catholic in India. By virtue of our veneration of St. Francis Xavier, by our kissing of his relic, by making him the model of our lives, and indeed, by virtue of our praying to him that he be the model of our lives, we are indeed imprinted with the DNA of St. Francis Xavier. At the end of the day, it was his total commitment to Christ which marked his DNA, to the extent that it did not corrupt!

It is unfortunate that there is no substantial amount of political theology, of the kind Archbishop Girelli articulated, being expounded in contemporary Goa, or indeed India. The theology that tends to be presented as political theology is dated, and cannot respond to the current situation in our country. Above all, it does not begin from spiritual premises, being silent on the fact that the transcendental, or supernatural, world has a very real impact on our lives. Rather, this theology remains almost entirely within an immanent frame, ignoring, if not denying (implicitly, though not explicitly) the transcendental, and sticking within the material, or natural, world. Where it attempts a political theology, it seems to remain at the level of the moral, be good to the poor, etc. etc. which while undeniably important and critical parts of the Christian project, gain importance only when they spring from a transcendental belief and truth. Indeed, what a shame, that it took a foreign diplomat to say what ought to have been on the lips of most Goans, especially the Catholic. But no matter! It is not too late for us to think more seriously about the way in which the Catholic faith physically imprints on the lives of Goans, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

(This text was first published in the O Heraldo on 21 Jan 2025.

Image Reference:St Francis Xavier baptizing Indians, by Luca Giordano, 1685, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples .)