By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Aug 18, 2022: A Catholic group working for reforms in the Catholic Church in the southern Indian state of Kerala has sought the country’s top court help to restrict the powers of bishops.
The Kerala Catholic Church Reformation Movement, registered as Catholic Association, wants bishops to administer only the spiritual needs of their faithful and not manage the Church’s temporal properties.
The movement has impleaded itself as a party to two appeals filed by the Catholic bishops in the Supreme Court challenging an August 2021 order of the Kerala High Court restricting the powers of bishops to only administer their spiritual faculties.
The Kerala High Court had held that the Catholic bishops, notwithstanding their canonical powers, had no powers to alienate landed assets of their dioceses because their “powers are confined to religious and spiritual matters.”
The Catholic diocese of Thamarassery and Bathery through separate Special Leave Petitions challenged the remarks made by the High Court in and sought the apex court direction to set them aside.
The High Court made the remarks while dismissing an appeal filed by Cardinal George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, to quash several criminal cases registered against him in Kerala for selling land belonging to the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese. The cardinal is also the archbishop of the archdiocese.
The top court has posted the matter for a detailed hearing to September 7.
Besides the Catholic Association, Archdiocesan Movement of Transparency and Joshy Varghese, who filed a case against Cardinal Alencherry, have also approached the top court to become parties to oppose the Catholic bishops’ move to get the high court order reversed.
“Our application could not be taken up for hearing on August 16 as it was a very brief hearing,” says Anto Mamkoottam, secretary of the Catholic Association who signed the affidavit in the top court.
“Our aim is to reform the Catholic Church and that needs restricting the powers of the bishops and the clergy to administering spiritual needs of believers. They should not indulge in managing the temporal properties of the Church that should be done by the parishioners,” Mamkoottam told Matters India on August 18.
The lay leader, in his submission before the SC, said any order reversing the Kerala High Court judgment will definitely have a drastic and adverse effect on the entire Catholic community.
The application further appealed the court to pass appropriate order for creating “a democratic system of governance for managing the temporalities of the Catholic Church. In the absence of such legislation, Catholic population is subjected to clerical authoritarianism based on some obsolete provisions of canon law.”
The application, focused on the Eastern rite Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Churches, said they function under the spiritual leadership of the Pope at the Vatican and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
The bishops, however, claim to be the real owners of Church properties and assets and further claim that they have the right to alienate them as they are empowered to do so under the canon law, their application said.
The Catholic Association application points out that the bylaws of the Catholic Church are drafted and framed by the clergy without the participation of the parishioners who are a majority and those bylaws are not registered under any prevailing law of India.
“The provisions contained in these bylaws are undemocratic and against basic principles of law and natural justice and empowers the clergy to administer the assets and properties according to the whims and fancies,” it says.
Mamkoottam further said that the canon law was properly implemented in Syro Malabar Church only in 1992. Until then, the church properties were entrusted with the parishes and governed by trustees elected by them under the traditional system in “Malankara Nasrani Sabha.”
“The implementation of canon law,” he added, “was a hidden agenda of finding a shortcut to subvert the traditional democratic system into an imperial system of the Roman Church, which would enable the bishops to establish their unquestionable autocratic supremacy in the church properties and its governance.”
The majority of the faithful and many laity organizations in Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Churches have demanded a democratic system of governance for managing the temporal properties of the churches.
In the absence of such legislation, millions of Catholics in India are subjected to clerical authoritarianism. Though Indians, they are curtailed from enjoying the rights and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution of India” the applicant said.
Mamkoottam also accused the Catholic bishops in Kerala of blocking Church Act (The Kerala Christian Church Properties and Institutions Bill) even after its clearance from the Law Reform Commission twice.
The application also cited the example of the Bombay Charitable Trust Act 1955, which was enacted in the western Indian state of Maharashtra that brought all religious establishments under its purview.
The Catholic Church challenged the legal validity of the law in the Bombay High Court and in the apex court. Both courts dismissed the appeals and declared it valid.
Subsequently the Bombay Catholic Sabha also got impleaded and a compromise formula was arrived at. It is possible to limit the unbridled powers of the hierarchy in purely temporal matters.
Sometime in 1992 when I was National President of the All India Catholic Union I received a midnight call from Bombay that the Salvation Church, Dadar case was coming up for hearing before the Charity Commissioner the next morning. I immediately called my Bombay based Vice President to file an impleadment application on behalf of the people. The then Cardinal filed a counter affidavit casting serious aspersions against me.
Before the Kerala Church was Europeanised it had a Palliyogam system that had representation of all sections of the community. We need to revive that.
In matters of temporal affairs/goods, Parish Finance Committees (PFCs) have a huge role to play by accounting for all receipts and payments including overseas donations. Most importantly each Parish must maintain an Assets Register to be regularly monitored by the PFC. Additions and Sale of properties/ write-offs must be done by a properly constituted body comprising mainly lay members of integrity. Going by the Kerala High Court judgements of August 2021 and October 2012, Bishops and/or parish priests should not have any role in real estate transaction. Quarterly updates on the Assets Register must be displayed on church notice board. Most parishes do not maintain Assets Register. Many parishes do not even have Parish Finance Committees. Auxilium Parish in Kolkata is one such parish.
A pioneering move in the Supreme Court of India by the Kerala Catholic Church Reformation Movement, Archdiocesan Movement of Transparency and Joshy Varghese, to restrict Bishops and priests’ jurisdiction to only spiritual matters and NOT temporal matters. At the most Bishops and parish priests are CARETAKERS and certainly not owners of church properties. The Laity is.
The laity groups are absolutely right in opposing the move by Kerala bishops requesting the Supreme Court to set aside August 2021 order of the Kerala High Court which restricted the powers of bishops to only administer their spiritual faculties. The August 2021 judgement is in keeping with an earlier Order in October 2012 by the Kerala High Court which ruled that parishioners have rights over church property. Justice K Vinod Chandran gave the ruling while hearing a case over property rights between parishioners and church authorities of ‘Mukkad Thirukudumba’ Church, Sakthikulangara, Kollam (Times of India, Kochi, 11 October 2012). The court observed Church and its properties would not vest in the Pope or the archbishop and the maxim “Roma locuta est, causa finite est” (Rome has spoken, case is closed) no longer survives. The court further observed that Canon Law cannot override the law of the land. This judgement was upheld and ratified by the Supreme Court of India and must be referred to at the outset when the hearing resumes on 7th September. In fact Canon Law should be modified with the proviso that in matters temporal they are subject to the law of the land.
Inbombay catholic activists moved the City Civil Court and got aBoard of Management which has 6 members including the PP for handling property matters
A house that is divided, will fall.
In my personal opinion, the Catholic group approaching the High/Supreme courts is in vain. The right place the group has to go is the Vatican. It is not an easy task but there is nothing like trying it. It is only the Vatican that can “restrict the powers of bishops and priests”. This burning issue must be discussed in the forthcoming Synod. Will it be done? It is a million-dollar question. The saddest reality is that still a ‘vast majority of the laity’ is in a sleep mode. A lot of awakening has to be done and real “REVOLUTION” has to take place in the Catholic church.
This is fabulous news from Kerala. Needs to be implemented across the board.