With the apostolic administrator of the Syro-Malabar archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly Jacob Manathodath scheduled to leave for Rome on April 2, there is anticipation that he will submit his report on a series of archdiocesan land deals between April 2015 and November 2017 to the Church authorities there.
Sources in the archdiocese said Bishop Manathodath will prepare his report on the basis of a study by the Joseph Inchody Commission, appointed by the apostolic administrator himself, and the one being prepared by KPMG, a private audit, tax, and advisory service.
The land deals spilled into public view late 2017, following which the apostolic administrator was appointed to deal with the affairs of the archdiocese in place of Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry, who is at the centre of the controversial deals.
A committee of experts appointed by the archdiocese had suggested action under both civil and canon law against those involved. The committee felt that the land deals were carried out with the full knowledge of the Major Archbishop and other senior functionaries.
The beginning
The land deals began with the archdiocese purchasing 23.22 acres of land at Mattoor, near Angamaly, in 2015 to set up a medical college. The archdiocese took a loan of ₹60 crore for the purpose. The loan was to be at least partially repaid by selling a plot near Thrissur. However, the land sale did not go through, forcing the archdiocese to bear heavy interest burden. Later, five plots of land were identified near Kochi to be sold at an average price of ₹9.05 lakh a cent to raise money to retire the initial loan.
The archdiocese should have received ₹27.3 crore within a month, which would have reduced the loan to about ₹32 crore. However, the archdiocese received just ₹9.13 crore even as a fresh loan of ₹10 crore was secured without permission from the archdiocesan fora. In the end, the archdiocese was straddled with a liability of ₹84 crore.
Lay leaders’ demand
Meanwhile, 200-odd lay leaders of the archdiocese have demanded action against Father Joby Maprakavil for trying to bring disgrace to the archdiocese, Bishop Manathodath and senior priest Paul Thelakat.
The meeting of 182 archdiocesan vice-chairpersons said that there had been a concerted effort to disgrace to archdiocese and that the synod of bishops should take action against Father Maprakavil. The resolution comes in the wake of Father Maprakovil filing a police complaint against Bishop Manathodath and Father Thelakat allegedly for forging documents to disgrace Cardinal Alencherry before the synod of bishops.
