Knanaya parish allows parishioner to marry from outside community

By Matters India Reporter

Kasargod, April 18, 2023: A parish under the Kottayam Knanaya Catholic archdiocese has created history when it allowed a parishioner to marry from outside the closely knit community without losing his membership.

The parish priest of St Anne’s Knanaya Catholic Church at Kottody in Kerala’s Kasargod district permitted Justin John to marry a girl from outside after much resistance.

“It was a real torture,” John, an autorickshaw driver, told Matters India April 18.

What came to John’s rescue was a civil court’s April 30, 2021, order, given after a protracted legal battle, declaring the practice of endogamy as illegal.

The court also ordered the archdiocese not to discriminate against its members who married from outside and directed it to issue mandatory certificates to solemnize such marriages.

He said his parish priest gave him the “kalyana kuri” (letter of permission) only on April 15, just two days before his engagement with Vijimol Shaji at Kottody’s St Francis Xavier’s Church under the Archdiocese of Tellicherry.

John thus became the first member of the Kottayam archdiocese to get the official nod to marry from another diocese without losing his membership in the community.

“I am happy that now I will not lose my membership from the Church,” said a jubilant John, who now plans to marry Vijimol mid-May.

Church officials say the practice of endogamy among the Knanaya community is at least 17 centuries old.

Until now, the Kottayam Knanaya Archdiocese terminated the membership of its members who chose their spouses from outside the community.

After the civil court order, some members pressed the archdiocese to comply with the court order and threatened to move contempt of court in case of defiance.

The archdiocese in March 2022 appealed the Kerala High Court for a stay of the civil court order.

The archdiocese cautioned that the lower court order would lead to serious repercussions, but the high court refused to grant any relief and ordered it to comply with the lower court order. It, however, agreed to hear the archdiocese’s concerns.

Narrating his ordeal to marry, John said he had searched for a suitable bride from his community for five years, but find none because of a shortage of girls. “Finally, I decided to seek alliance from other Catholic dioceses as sticking with endogamy would not help me get married in this life,” he explained.

He said the marriage was arranged with the consent of both the families.

When the girl’s family agreed to marriage, John met the parish priest for the mandatory letter of permission, but the priest asked him to go to the archbishop.

“I wrote three letters to Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt, but received no reply to any.”

John also said the archdiocesan authorities tried to mislead him saying the appeal against the lower court order was pending in the high court. “They said they will do something only after the court settles the appeal permanently,” he added.

He then sent a legal notice to the archbishop through his attorney informing that “any refusal to grant permission for my marriage is a clear violation of the court order and amounts to invitation of contempt of court case.”

The archbishop then ordered John to get the necessary documents from the parish priest.

“When I approached the parish priest he refused again saying he could not do anything unless the archbishop ordered,” John said.

Meanwhile the date for engagement was fixed and the girl’s family was in dilemma.

“Somebody had tried to dissuade my bride’s family to call off the marriage, but they did not succumb to such pressure,” John said.

The archdiocese still seems not ready to implement the court order.

Asked about it, an archdiocesan official said, “The permission was granted in compliance with court direction.”

John urged the archdiocese to give up its rigidity and welcome back those forced to leave the community on account of its discriminatory practice that has weakened the community.