The synod of bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church has stood firm in its allegations about the occurrences of “inter-religious” love affairs targeted at Christian girls that “tend to endanger religious amity and societal peace”.
It is a fact that such “planned” affairs, targeted at Christian girls, had taken place.
That Christian girls had been recruited into the IS terrorist organisation “should open our eyes”, said a circular issued by the bishops that was read out at many parishes of the Syro-Malabar Church during the course of the mass on Sunday.
The circular was officially issued at the end of the first session of the 28th synod of the bishops here last week and was meant to be read out during the Sunday Mass.
However, some parishes did not read out the circular because they either celebrated the feast of St. Sebastian on Sunday or the parish authorities had not received the copies of the circular, claimed the official spokesman for the Syro-Malabar church here on Sunday.
He said that it was not because of the opposition to the content of the circular that it was not read out in some parishes.
Strong opposition
The clarification came in the wake of opposition to the “love jihad” allegations made by the bishops in their circular after the synod.
Kuriakose Mundadan, senior priest of the Syro-Malabar archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, had expressed his opposition to the reference.
So did Almaya Munnettam, a group within the Syro-Malabar Church calling for reforms and transparency in the administration.
The ‘love jihad’ allegation was being raised to divert attention from the internal affairs of the Syro-Malabar church, claimed Almaya Munnettam convener Binju John and spokesman Riju Kanjookkaran.
When issues such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was being discussed, live allegations had been mistimed, they alleged.
Meanwhile, the Joint Christian Council has said that attempts by Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, to use church members as “commodity for sale” would be resisted strongly.
The Cardinal’s circular alleging ‘love jihad’ only exposed his grovelling before the Bharatiya Janata Party, said the council in a statement issued here on Sunday.
The Cardinal’s attempt to surrender the Catholic church before “communal organisations” such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) would not be successful, the council statement added.
