Catholicos' move on land purchase draws flak

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 1. The Malankara Orthodox Almaya Association, Thiruvananthapuram, has taken serious exception to the Malankara Metropolitan's insistence on purchasing the land worth lakhs of rupees which the Puthupally St. George Orthodox parish proposes to acquire, in his name.

In a joint statement here today, Mr. P.V. Varghese, president, and Prof. P.M. George, general secretary of the association, and Prof. K. Joshua, Chief Editor of `The Orthodox Voice' said the Metropolitan had asked the vicar not to sign the cheque if the property was not being bought in his name.

They felt that the Catholicos' intervention amounted to the misuse of his spiritual authority over the vicar and the flagrant violation of the constitution of the church and all ethical principles.

They pointed out that the Supreme Court had in its judgment, pronounced in 1995 on a litigation which began in 1974 relating to the control of the parish churches and properties, categorically stated that their ownership was vested with the parish itself and that the final authority for their administration was the parish assembly and its elected managing committee. They contended that whatever jurisdiction the diocesan Metropolitan and the Malankara Metropolitan had over the parishes was confined to spiritual matters. In temporal matters, their powers were purely supervisory as provided for in the constitution of the church.

They said that article 23 of the constitution of the church which had been upheld by the apex court stated beyond a shadow of doubt that the property of a parish was to be purchased or sold on the basis of a decision of the parish assembly concerned and with the concurrence of the diocesan Metropolitan. They argued that the term concurrence did not imply any obstruction in the process of acquisition. It was only a provision to enable the Metropolitan to tender proper advice or guidance in the best interests of the parish.

They charged the Malankara Metropolitan with having embarked recently on a programme of systematically undermining the provisions of the constitution and resorting to the back-door method of annexing the properties through illegal and improper ways. They feared that if the unhealthy trend was not effectively checked, it would bring disaster to the Orthodox Church as a whole.

They wanted the legal battle which the Catholicos had been waging against the Thiruvananthapuram St. George Orthodox parish for the last 23 years to secure for himself the rent from the Mar Baselios Memorial Building belonging to the parish and which was constructed by the parish with its funds, to serve as an eyeopener to the Orthodox community.

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