By Matters India Reporter
Kochi, April 15, 2020: Two Catholic priests have been booked for violating lockdown norms in the past one week in Kerala.
Police in Kochi on April 15 arrested Father Augustine Palayil, parish priest of Stella Maris Church in Wellington Island in Kerala’s commercial capital.
The priest allegedly gathered people for Mass in the morning. The police have also arrested six Catholics who participated in the Mass. The parish comes under the Cochin diocese.
Earlier on April 11, police in Kannur district’s Kudiyanmala village registered a case against Father Lazar Varambakath, parish priest of the local Fatima Matha Church for flouting quarantine regulations.
The 50-year-old priest was under observation after a parish trustee was tested positive for coronavirus infection. The trustee and his wife contracted the disease from their son, who had come from Dubai. While the son was cured of the disease, the parents are undergoing treatment in a hospital in Pariyaram in Kannur district.
The Kannur district health department had asked some 30 people who had contacted the family, including the parish priest and his assistant, to strictly observe quarantine for 14 days.
The case was registered after a Whatsapp picture showed the priest climbing the local cross mountain with a group of parishioners on Good Friday, which fell in the quarantine period.
The parish council later clarified that the priest had not conducted the Way of the Cross as alleged by certain sections in the media. A press note from the council said the priest had gone alone to the hill that is part of the parish property. Two people joined him on the way and they rested some time on the hilltop. As they were about to leave a few neighbors came and took selfies, the press note said.