By Matters India Reporter

Kottody, May 20, 2023: A Catholic couple exchanged marriage vows and garlanded each other in front of a closed church after the groom’s priest defied a court order and refused to issue a mandatory certificate.

Had the Kottayam Knanaya archdiocese granted Justin John permission to marry Vijimol Shaji, he would have become the first member of the endogamous and closed community to retain his church membership after marrying outside the sect.

But the historic church wedding did not take place as the archdiocese refused to issue a no-objection certificate on the day of the marriage.

Although both are members of the Syro-Malabar Church, the groom belongs to the closed Knanaya Church and Vijimol is a member of the Tellicherry archdiocese in the southern Indian state of Kerala.

They married in a Hindu style on May 18 in front of St. Francis Xavier’s Church in Kottody, a village in Kerala’s Kasargod district.

The couple’s family members and some 1,000 invited guests blessed them and celebrated the marriage openly challenging diocesan authorities.

The archdiocese “must have thought the couple would call off the marriage and surrender to the church’s authority,” said John Joseph, one of the guests.

Justin told Matters India May 19 that they would fight against the injustice.

He is hopeful of getting the marriage rectified in the Church soon, “as the parish priest’s decision to deny a letter of consent for our marriage was in gross violation of a court order.”

The Kottayam archdiocese excommunicates any member who marries from outside the 17-centuries-old community.

The archdiocese has stuck to its tradition even after a court dismissed the practice as illegal and the Vatican disapproved it on several occasions.

The Tellicherry archdiocese has no such discrimination but her parish priest could not bless their marriage without the NOC from Justin’s parish priest.

“This was part of a well orchestrated strategy to discredit the couple and let them give up their demand for inter-diocesan marriage,” said Biju Uthup, a retired aeronautical scientist and one of the guests, told Matters India.

He said he came for the marriage thinking the Kottayam archdiocese would “shed its ego and comply with the court order, but nothing of that sort happened.”

Uthup, a Knanaya member, had started three decades ago a struggle against his community’s endogamy practice after he was denied permission to marry from outside the diocese.

He continues to face excommunication like thousands of others who have married outside the archdiocese.

“We arranged their marriage after the court dismissed the practice as illegal, but still Justin’s parish priest refused to issue the letter despite promising to send it to the bride’s parish priest,” Uthup explained.

He said they have united the couple and “will continue our legal fight and ensure that they would be married according to the Church rules in Justin’s parish,” he added.

Justin said they will soon register their marriage according to the government norms.

Uthup said they had planned to solemnize the marriage at his bride’s parish, but now, “it will be done at his parish only.”

Justin will soon file a contempt of court case against the parish priest Sijo Stephan and Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt of Kottayam for defying the court order.

A civil court in Kerala on April 30, 2021, after a protracted legal battle by Uthup and others struck down the practice as illegal and directed the archdiocese not to discriminate against its members who married from outside the archdiocese.

The court also directed the archdiocese to issue mandatory church certificates to solemnize marriages of those willing to get married from other Catholic dioceses.

The archdiocese appealed against the order before the Kerala High Court in March 2022. But the top court in the state ordered the archdiocese to comply with the lower court order during the pendency of the appeal.

Justin’s parish complied with the court order and on April 15 issued permission for their engagement, which was conducted two days later without any hurdle.

But for the marriage, the parish priest had assured Justin to send the NOC directly to the bride’s parish priest ahead of the marriage.

Justin said when he realized the trap, he took police help to find his parish priest who refused to attend his calls and remained elusive.

In front of the police, the priest on May 17 agreed to issue the letter and asked Justinto make an application which he did in the presence of the police,

The priest later backtracked and told the police that it was not possible for him to issue the letter. He then said he required at least 10 days to seek approval from the archdiocesan curia.

“It was a deliberate attempt to humiliate the couple,” said T O Joseph, president of the Knanaya Reform Committee which is leading the litigation in courts to end the practice.

“When the priest remained untraceable we realized that he would not let their marriage take place, but still we went ahead with it without official recognition from the Church,” Joseph told Matters India.

He said he is certain the court will “certainly direct the parish to solemnize their marriage. So, we celebrated.”

Joseph and others described endogamy as an “evil practice” that should be eliminated permanently so that no one in the community would be discriminated against for marrying from outside the community.

The archdiocese has defended its stand stating that Justin approached the parish priest for the consent letter on the previous day of the marriage without complying with basic requirements.

The archdiocese also asserted that it did not defy the court order instead respected and complied with it by issuing the permission for the engagement.

John and others say the incident is “a blessing in disguise as we got wide publicity about this unchristian practice in the archdiocese.”