By Matters India Reporter
Kottayam, April 20, 2020: Pope Francis and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among dignitaries “seen” at a meeting conducted at a village church in Kerala’s Kottayam district.
However, none of them was present in person at the mock meeting held after Sunday Mass on April 19 at the St. Mary’s Church in Elackad near Kuravilangad, some 55 km southeast of Kochi, the state’s commercial capital.
Parish priest Father Paul Chalaveetil, who felicitated the dignitaries, said “the meeting” was organized to felicitate the leaders for the efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic that has affected nearly 210 countries in the world.
Prime Minister Modi has done “much to prevent the spread of coronavirus. So we must congratulate him for his necessary and good measures,” the priest explained.
He also thanked Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Health Minister K K Shailaja and others for preventing the preventing the spread of Covid-19 in the southern Indian state.
Representatives of doctors, nurses, sanitation workers and the media were “present” at the mock meeting along with the parishioners, as cutouts.
Father Chalaveetil also said that the parish has collected total 100,000 rupees to donate to the Kerala chief minister’s distress relief fund.