Once upon a time many years ago, there lived a jovial young man called Charles along with his pretty wife and three children. It was Charles’ job to look after the children in an orphanage, and he looked after the children as if they were his own. In the compound of the orphanage was an old church built in memory of the patron saint of shoemakers.
One day as Charles was at home, having his afternoon siesta, he heard the terrified voice of his wife screaming. “There’s a tiger in the compound! There’s a tiger in the compound!” Charles, who had had a hard day’s work, thinking he was in the middle of a dream, just turned over and went back to sleep, but was pulled out of his reverie by the frenzied hands of his wife. “What is it?” growled Charles. “It’s a tiger,” shouted his wife, “and it’s climbed up a tree.”
This time without a moment’s hesitation, Charles followed by his anxious wife ran out. She pointed out the tree to him, and there high above the church, lay the animal, huge and splendid. “It’s a leopard,” said Charles, “see that all the children are behind closed doors.
Charles immediately called the police.
The police of those days arrived, an army of them, with their ancient twelve bores and their crack shots. They positioned themselves around the tree and aimed.
Charles looked up into the tree, and suddenly it seemed that he was looking straight into the jet-black eyes of the leopard. “No!” shouted Charles, “don’t shoot, let me call the forest department.” The police put down their ancient guns reluctantly and waited patiently as the forest officials were called.
They came and five hours later, the leopard was captured by the forest department and set free again in the hills of the Sahyadris in the Bamburda Forest.
This is a true story and took place many years ago, before the existence of animal activists at St Crispins Church, Karve Road in Pune.
“What made you stop the police from shooting it?” I asked my friend Charles.
“In the olden days,” said Charles, “a religious place was a place any fugitive could find sanctuary in. When I looked up into the tree and into the leopard’s eyes it seemed as if that was what the leopard was pleading for...sanctuary. The leopard came here to be safe. All I did was adhere to an age-old custom...I gave it sanctuary!”
This tale is for the new brand of church attackers, assaulting priests, pastors and nuns, and causing havoc in religious places.
Stop it.
The church has always been considered a safe place, and your acts of vandalism and assaults are only tarnishing your own image.
Even a leopard thought of it as safe, can’t you keep it that way?
