Staff Reporter
Against move to curtail Church’s activities
Attempts to keep church’s activities from common man
Alleges violence against Pushpagiri Medical College
PATHANAMTHITTA: Major Archbishop and Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Church Mar Baselios Cleemis has called for strong resistance against the alleged Government move to curtail activities of the Church in the fields of education and healthcare.
Mar Cleemis was inaugurating a Pastoral Council meeting of the Thiruvalla Archdiocese of the Church at the Santhinilayam auditorium in Thiruvalla on Saturday.
The Pastoral Council alleged that there were conscious attempts by certain quarters to shadow the service of the Church in the field of healthcare, education and society and keep it away from the common man by exploiting the fluid situation created by the Government over the self-financing professional colleges issue.
The meeting expressed concern at the alleged attempts of the Government to encroach upon the aided education sector as well as the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the Church. It constituted various committees for chalking out a course of action.
The Pastoral Council alleged that the youth and students’ organisations of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had been unleashing a series of violent agitations against the Thiruvalla Pushpagiri Medical College for the past five years.
It warned the CPI(M) that the Church would go to any extent to ensure protection of Pushpagiri, if the CPI(M) organisations failed to stop their attack on the institution.
Archbishop of Thiruvalla Thomas Mar Koorilos presided over the meeting. Fr Abraham Thannikkuzhy spoke on ‘Pastoral Council and the Church’ and Fr Cherian Thazhamon on ‘Minority rights and education’. K.C. Mathai Kumbanthanam was elected new council secretary.
