KOCHI: Priests in majority of the churches coming under the Ernakulam-Angama-ly archdiocese have ignored the circular issued by Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church during the Sunday Mass. The Cardinal has issued the circular in the churches to be read on the Sunday.
The Archdiocese Movement for Transparency and Almaya Munnettam representing the laity of the archdiocese congratulated the priests for their decision to ignore the circular. More than 90 percent of the priests belonging to the archdiocese have ignored the circular, said a spokesman of AMT. This is a clear rebuff to the cardinal, he added.
The circular was mainly dealing with the controversial land deals in the archdiocese and the subsequent events.
A section of the priests and laity feels that the cardinal played a dubious role in the land deal which has resulted in huge losses to the church. The laity organisations opposed to the cardinal is of the view that he had hurt the sentiments of the priests and ordinary believers and in such a situation the priests would not be in a position to read out the circular issued by him. According to the opponents of the cardinal out of the 336 parishes in the archdiocese only 30 witnessed the reading of the circular during the Sunday Mass.
Father Antony Pootha-velil, a staunch supporter of the Cardinal, said the circular was read out during the Sunday Mass at the Mattoor St. Antony’s Church and St. Mary’s Church at Mattoor Town.
