Christians pledge to avoid church burials

By Matters India Reporter

Kochi, Aug 17, 2022: A group of Christians belonging to different denominations in the southern Indian state of Kerala has decided not to avail church burials as part of their effort to reform Churches and promote organ and body donations.

Catholics formed more than 90 percent of the August 14 gathering at Vanchi Square, a popular site for civil protests in Kochi, Kerala’s commercial capital.

They resolved not to bury their bodies in a church cemetery.

Their public pledge appealed their family members to donate their bodies to medical colleges after their death so that their bodies can be used for studies by medical students.

The public function was organized under the aegis of Joint Christian Council, an umbrella organization of various Christian denominations.

“Our main objective is to create awareness among the ordinary believers of all denominations against their exploitation by clergy in the name of administering sacraments. Instead their bodies could be utilized for useful purposes,” says the council president Felix J. Pulludan.

“Burial in the Catholic Church in normal circumstances has become a very pompous affair and ordinary poor people are unable to bear the cost,” Pulludan told Matters India on August 15.

He points out that the rich have family tombs in cemeteries but no such facility is given to the poor. “Such practice is no doubt discrimination of bodies and goes against the teachings of Christ,” he asserts.

“Even in cemeteries different class of people are created such practices is unChristian,” he says.

“The clergy,” Pulludan alleges, “often used the sacraments as a bargaining tool to garner donations and funds. The faithful are forced to become slaves to the religion in the name of the holy sacraments.”

The idea of ‘life after death’ and ‘happy life in heaven’ is responsible for the existing spiritual slavery, he says and adds, “such mindset must be changed to enjoy life in this life time rather than waiting for life after death.”

“Even if there is heaven, the person should lead a happy life with good deeds when he is alive. This should be the interpretation of the afterlife. We are making an attempt to spread such a thought,” Pulludan explained.

According to him, people blindly follow their clergy who often take advantage of their innocence creating fear about hell and other such things. Our attempt is to tell the truth and make them aware of reality,” he added.

Indulekha Joseph, a lawyer, who read out the pledge to the participants told Matters India on August 16 that the body of her father, who died recently, was donated to a medical college rather than go for a church burial.

“I find this (donating body to medical college) is better than letting bodies to be buried when medical colleges face shortage for bodies and students are unable to do dissection which is essential part of their study,” she added.

She said they have given option to the participants to choose how they want to dispose their bodies. “They could opt for church burial or in any public cemetery or donate bodies to medical colleges or organs to those in need.”

But all participants opted to avoid church burials and decided to donate their bodies to medical colleges, she added.

Pulludan said many Christians who could not attend the program have expressed their willingness to become part of the campaign. “We will now collect them together through an online platform and organize such public functions involving more people,” he added.

A Catholic Church official, who did not want to be named, said the church has a tradition for burials and “we follow it.”

“Those against can choose their own way,” the official said adding, “unnecessarily creating hype about family tombs and other differences are unwarranted.”