Leaked audit report muddles archdiocesan land sale controversy

By Matters India Reporter

Kochi: Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, is in the eye of a storm again after the report of a Church-mandated probe by an international audit was leaked to the press.

“Cardinal Alencherry has lost his moral right to hold any office of the Catholic Church and hence, he should resign from all Church offices,” asserts Shyju Antony, convener of Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (AMT), a laity group that has opposed a controversial sale of land belonging to the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.

The cardinal is also the president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, the association of bishops from Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches in the southern Indian state.

Father Alex Onampally, Media Commission secretary of the Syro-Malabar Church, has rejected the call for the cardinal’s resignation saying, “An allegation in a report of a private agency does not hold much value.” Its leak to the media betrays a premeditated plan, he asserted.

The priest says the allegations against Cardinal Alencherry and the demand for his resignation are fresh attempts to tarnish him and the Church.

The probe by KPMG (the merger of Peat Marwick International and Klynveld Main Goerdeler) found the cardinal guilty of incurring a loss of 220 million rupees in the land deal. The alleged leak to media happened on June 24.

The Church appointed the Anglo-Dutch multinational professional services network, one of the big four accounting organizations in the world, to probe the 2016 sale of the archdiocesan land carried out by Cardinal Alencherry as the archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.

Those opposed to Cardinal Alencherry claim that the land deal had resulted in the loss more than 800 million rupees to the archdiocese and accused prelate of swindling the Church money.

Father Onampally told Matters India that he has never seen the KPMG report.

However, those who leaked the report to the media “have the hidden agenda to keep alive the issues related to the land sale and to tarnish the image of the cardinal,” he added.

On the contrary, Antony and his supporters say the leaked report clearly shows that Cardinal Alencherry had bypassed all canonical bodies and gone ahead with the land deal through a middleman, who was apparently one of his close associates.

Antony and team want the cardinal to resign immediately as the head of the Syro-Malabar Church as well as the president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council.

The audit report, Antony told Matters India on June 28, shows that the archdiocese has lost 219.9 million rupees in the deal since it had considered the only basic value of the land at that time.

The audit report also noted that Cardinal Alencherry had asked the middleman, Saju Varghese, to deposit 100 million rupees in the prelate’s name as share in the Deepika, a Church-managed Malayalam daily newspaper.

In 2017, a section of priests in the archdiocese and laity joined hands to demand the cardinal’s resignation from the office of archbishop but he refused.

They then staged public demonstrations, including indefinite hunger strike by priests, finally forcing the Vatican to suspend the cardinal’s administrative powers in the archdiocese.

In June 2018, the Vatican appointed Bishop Jacob Manathodath of Palghat as its apostolic administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.

The administrator was tasked to probe the allegations against the cardinal. The KPMG was then appointed to audit the alleged controversial land deal.

The international firm submitted its report to the administrator, who submitted it to the Vatican as a confidential document.

Father Onampally says the Vatican has intervened to settle the issue definitively by directing to sell two plots of land that Cardinal Alencherry had got registered in the name of the archdiocese as guarantee lest it suffer loss.

“This position of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches has vindicated Cardinal George Alencherry,” claimed the spokesperson in a statement.

The Church official asserted that the properties were sold respecting all canonical and civil norms. “This is accepted by the Vatican and in the police enquiry report,” Father Onampally pointed out.

Cardinal Alencherry, the priest added, had admitted many times supervisory failures as the head of the archdiocesan team in the execution of the land deal.

“The Vatican Congregation has made its position clear after taking into account the reports including that of KPMG,” Father Onampally explained.

Another report said the Vatican wants to settle the issue permanently as it has caused serious damage to the Catholic Church’s image, especially in Kerala, a Christian stronghold in India.

The Vatican, according to the report, authorized Archbishop Antony Kariyil, current administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly, to sell two other plots of land of the archdiocese to settle loss incurred in the previous deal.

The Vatican also wants everyone including the consulters and the fiancé committee to support the archbishop to sell the properties without hurdle and warned of serious action against those opposing it, including laity.

But such warnings seem to have no impact on some priests and lay leaders such as Antony who openly question the Vatican deal.

The land proposed for sale, Antony says, was bought for 60 million rupees, a couple of years ago. Now, the plan is to sell it for 360 million rupees.

The archdiocese, a registered charitable firm, is not legally permitted to enter into such profitable business. In case the archdiocese goes ahead with the deal it will soon lose its charitable character and “will have to pay 30 percent of all its earning including the Sunday offerings as income tax,” Antony cautioned.

According to him, “the Vatican formula is also contrary to natural justice and all legally established procedures.”

He insists that Cardinal Alencherry has incurred loss to the archdiocese and that he should compensate.

The archdiocese should not be tasked again selling its valuable properties meant for public welfare, the lay leader added.

Meanwhile, priests from the archdiocese plan to appeal to Signaturae Apostolicae, the highest appellate tribunal in the Vatican, challenging the order of the prefect of Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonard Sandri.