Indian Currents , a weekly news and views publication from New Delhi, has been asked to withhold the publication of a report on a series of land sales by the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, against which there have been allegations of mismanagement and loss of money.
Indian Currents, in circulation since 1987 and accredited to the DAVP, is owned by the Catholic religious order Capuchins of Krist Jyoti Province of North India.
Chief editor Suresh Mathew told The Hindu that he was asked by his superior to withhold the uploading of the cover story on the land deal for Indian Current ’s latest edition, which should have appeared on its website on Saturday morning.
He denied that the report was banned but that he was asked to withdraw it for now and wait until the report on the land deal came out so that there would be a more complete picture.
The report refers to the one by a six-member committee appointed by the archdiocesan authority on the land deal. The report was to be submitted at the Presbyteral Council meeting of the Archdiocese on Thursday. However, the meeting was cancelled.
The cover story, titled Cardinal Sin, described how the land deals landed the archdiocese in a ‘mess’ and how money matters had taken “the credibility of the Church on a slippery slope.”
Prayer dharna
Meanwhile, a group of Catholics under the banner of the Kerala Catholic Federation held a prayer meeting and dharna before the Archbishop’s House on Saturday.
V.K. Joy, general secretary of the federation, said it was not demanding the resignation of Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry or senior officials of the archdiocese. But that the property of the archdiocese should be administered by a group of lay people elected by the faithful, who were the ‘real owners’ of the property.
