Protest by Orthodox Church

Catholicos alleges Jacobite ‘bid to garner public sympathy’

Catholicos of the East, Baselius Mar Thoma Paulose-II, inaugurating a protest meet by the Thumpamon diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Church in Pathanamthitta on Sunday.

The head of Malankara Orthodox Church and Catholicos of the East Baselius Mar Thoma Paulose-II has alleged that certain prejudiced sections were trying to cover up the facts regarding the Supreme Court order on the Malankara Church row in an effort to garner public sympathy.

The Catholicos was inaugurating a protest meet organised by the Thumpamon diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Church, alleging denial justice to the Church by the government here on Sunday.

‘Desperate attempt’

A section of the Jacobite Syrian Church had been propagating that they were not allowed to bury their dead at cemeteries by the Orthodox Church. He termed it a desperate attempt to get public sympathy.

All those who accepted the laws of the land should comply with the court order, and the government was bound to implement it, he said. The Catholicos said the Orthodox Church expressed its objection in public only when the government appeared reluctant to implement the final verdict of the Supreme Court on the long-pending Church dispute.

The Catholicos said the Jacobite faction was making all efforts to bypass the Supreme Court verdict with the tacit support of certain powerful forces. He said violence was not in the agenda of the Orthodox Church.

Kuriakose Mar Cleemis Metropolitan presided.