Sanal Edamuruku, or for that matter Rationalists International, were not names the Indian Catholic Church was familiar with before it ran into them in Mumbai, triggering a controversy that has crossed national borders and is making news in the US and the UK.

This is a purely Catholic controversy and does not touch other denominations in India -- the Episcopal, Evangelical and Pentecostal Independent churches, who for the moment are struggling with their own controversies of corruption, moral turpitude, land alienation and fundamentalism.

Edamuruku, of the Rationalists International movement, has been a fixture on the more sensational Indian print and TV news channels with his exposes on god-men of which India has an unaccounted large number. In the past, he has taken on some of the most venerable names in this field and has survived. He can, in fact, be thought of as an extremist and fundamentalist himself in his beliefs, as are the subjects of his enquiries.

On March 10 this year, Edamuruku was asked by India’s TV-9 channel to investigate a crucifix at the Mumbai Church of Our Lady of Velankanni which had started attracting large crowds of believers because of droplets of water which were dripping from the feet of Jesus.

Mumbai, like Kerala, Goa and Mangalore, has a pretty large concentration of Catholics, most of them by all accounts active members of the Church. People, and not all of them Catholics or even Christians, collected the droplets as “holy water.”

Edamuruku in his widely publicized findings claimed the source of the crucifix water was a drainage system near a washing room that was leaking water through the crucifix’s nail holes via capillary action. This was the same phenomenon which made several idols of the Hindu Lord Ganesh apparently “drink” milk resulting in mass hysteria some years ago.

However, Edamuruku went on to say that the Church had manufactured the miracle and was exploiting the faithful for financial gain.

The laity and clergy of the Archdiocese of Bombay cried foul, describing Edamuruku’s findings as an insult to their faith.

Father Augustine Palett, the priest at Our Lady of Velankanni church, and the Association of Concerned Catholics demanded that Edamuruku apologize.

Mumbai Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo Gracias sought to restore some sanity saying the Church is“always cautious in attributing supernatural causes” to such phenomena and are always striving “to find ‘scientific’ explanations.”

A criminal case was nonetheless filed against Edamuruku and police have been going to his home in Delhi to arrest him.

However, Edamuruku has not been home, and has mobilized a powerful international rationalist community to his assistance. Not surprisingly, extremist groups in the Hindutva brigade have extended him support, presumably arguing that an enemy’s enemy is a friend, but conveniently forgetting that they too were baying for his blood not too long ago.

As someone who is in touch both with the Mumbai church, especially leaders in the laity, and Sanal Edmaruku, I am pleading for the return of a sense of proportion in this issue.

It would seem this is a clash of two fundamentalist groups. It also comes in the context of a satellite TV and internet social media environment in which many prominent Hindu temples, seminaries and their leaders have been exposed, often in what are called “sating operations”. Several god-men have been caught in compromising situations with women, sometimes gullible devotees, or audits have exposed their illegal wealth. Many “miracles” and miracle cures” have also been ridiculed in the media.

Unlike the violence and hate campaigns unleashed on the Christian community by Hindutva Parivar strategists and cadres in many states, and by Muslims Mullahs in the Kashmir valley and a few other areas in East and South India, Edamuruku’s position is neither “persecution” nor “communalism” as we understand those terms.

A section of the Catholic community is embarrassed and therefore enraged. Edamuruku is an extremist in own way, especially in the manner in which he believes in his rationalist theories and in his often arrogant and abrasive manner of pursuing his point of view. To that extent, he is a bit of a social maverick. But he is “Catholic” in his approach, and confronts all mythology and superstition irrespective of which group propagates it, or how powerful those who believe in superstitions and miracles are.

It must be remembered that people from presidents down have had no hesitation in admitting their loyalty to various god men, and yet rationalists have exposed these same people as charlatans.

I believe Christ is absolutely capable of defending Himself, if perhaps not the Church in India. These statements by Edamuruku or the probe by his Rationalists must not be taken as an attack on the Church, or on the community. It certainly is not an attack on the Christian faith.

The Faithful of Mumbai think they are defending their faith when they go on hunger strikes against books of fiction or films from Hollywood and Bollywood. But in reality, they are defending their own positions and constituencies and do not want them to be exposed to sunlight.

Christ does not have to drip water from crucifixes to prove the love he has for each one of us. His healing is deeper and needs no instruments. I have experienced this in my own life.

Catholics in Mumbai possibly realize the controversy is not winning the Church any new friends, nor is it adding to its luster. Its impact on faith formation in the archdiocese is also a matter of conjecture. It is time the Church leadership really forgave Edamuruku and his faith in Physics and Chemistry.

He has learnt his own lesson – not to mock at genuine faith of the people, and not confuse a passing popular fancy for a “miracle,” however untenable, to say the community is being taken for a ride by the Church.

The police case against Sanal Edmaruku should be withdrawn as a sign that a mature Church in India needs no props for the depth of its faith in God.

John Dayal is the general secretary of the All India Christian Council and a member of the Indian government’s National Integration Council