By Matters India Reporter
Mohana: A Catholic priest in Odisha has apologized for not permitting the burial of Covid victim in the parish cemetery.
“I am sorry and ask apology to the bereaved family for such unfortunate event,” says a message from Father Valentine U Singh, parish priest of St. Peter’s Catholic Church Mohana, one of the oldest and Catholic populated parishes in Berhampur diocese.
Manjula Beero died May 12 at Sitapur Covid Hospital Parlakhemundi in the Gajapati district of the eastern Indian state. She was 63.
The woman’s son Rajnikanth Beero had to bury his mother their house’s backyard after his parish priest refused to bury her in the cemetery. He also faced problems from local villagers.
Father Singh’s message expressed sorrow over Manjula not getting burial in Mohana cemetery. “There was a communication gap between the parish priest, Tehsildar, village elders and the bereaved family,” the priest explained.
After Manjula’s death, her son had approached the Mohana tehsildar (middle level tax officer) for permission to perform the woman’s last rites, as per the Covid protocol.
The son initially could meet his priest for permission to bury his mother in the common Catholic cemetery adjacent to the parish church.
Meanwhile, the head of Ladruma village, Manoranjan Parichha, met the priest along with other villagers to arrange the funeral. The priest allegedly refused to bury the deceased saying the cemetery suffers from land erosion as its soil is sandy.
Parichha, who is also a catechist, then met the tehsildar, who informed him that the villagers had requested him not to bury the woman in the Catholic cemetery as it lacks burial place. Sometimes bones appear when they prepare a new grave.
The Tehsildar then suggested burying the woman in her family’s land, government land or a Covid specified burial ground.
The woman’s son opted to bury his mother in their land, which is slightly away from the house. But local people, mostly Hindus, refused permission to carry the woman’s body through the village. “If your parish priest and Catholic faithful do not permit you to bury in Church owned cemetery we cannot allow you to carry the body through our village,” the son quoted the villagers as telling him.
He then requested the tehsildar to bury his mother in front of his house.
The woman was the widow of a government teacher who died in 2009. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery. Before Manjula’s death, the parish had four other Covid 19 deaths in two weeks. The parish permitted their burial in the cemetery with Covid protocol, the son pointed out.
He said he has no idea why the priest denied permission to bury his mother in the cemetery despite several requests.
“Ultimately after much struggle, we buried her in our backyard. I think as a Catholic Christian my mom had the last right to be buried in a common cemetery. That has not happened,” he told Matters India May 14.
He says being Catholics his family’s “minimum expectation” was to give his mother a decent church burial. “We feel my mom was disrespected by the Church. Can she be given justice and how?” he said and added that no other family should face similar situation in future, “especially in this difficult and tough time.”