By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Dec 28, 2023: A Kerala parish council’s “barbaric” punishment to a youth during Christmas midnight Mass has triggered condemnation in the southern Indian state.
“Today I heard the news that the young man was brought to his knees to apologize. The sting of the action still hasn’t gone away, and the shame of it coming from a religious group that I belong to is overwhelming me,” laments Father Aji Puthiyaparambil, who left active priestly ministry a few months ago to fight corruption in the Church.
The 46-year-old priest says the “barbaric punishment” took place on Christmas, the “birthday of the one who forgave those who insulted him even in his last breath.”
Earlier, marunandanmalayalee.com, a YouTube channel, reported the incident with the headline, “A parish gives barbaric punishment to a youth. Kerala is shocked.”
According to the December 27 report, the parish committee of St Andrews Church, Karumkulam, had asked a young parishioner named Minroose to walk on his knees from the church’s main door to the altar before apologizing.
The YouTube channel shows the man walking on his knees before apologizing from the pulpit. The man, who claimed he was an illiterate fisherman, said the committee had asked him to apologize in the church for questioning its decision on a church property.
Minroose said the parish priest announced the transfer without consulting the parishioners, who had paid for the property. He said he was worried about the parishioners losing their houses eventually.
Shajan Skariah, the editor of the YouTube channel, says the incident has outraged the parish community.
Father Puthiyaparambil’s December 27 statement that began “Dear brother … Sorry!!!!!,” points out that the atrocity has taken place not in African jungles or in some northern Indian villages, but in the self-proclaimed educated, proud Catholic Church in Kerala.”
“Even when trembling with intense rage, my head hangs in shame. The heart aches with pain,” said the priest who faces Church scrutiny for challenging its several earlier moves.
Ajith Lawrence, a veteran journalist and a member of Trivandrum archdiocese, too condemned the incident and wondered if the archdiocese was reviving an old practice.
He recalled that the archdiocese started in 1995 a practice where people having illicit relations had to stand in front of the altar holding a cross during Mass.
“It was abandoned after people protested punishing only the lay people, not priests who had affairs,” Lawrence told Matters India December 27.
Father Puthiyaparambil regretted that when “this atrocity was staged,” not a parishioner inside the church had the courage to stop it.
He urged the church authorities to ensure such incidents are not repeated. “The only way to do that is to urgently Christianize the church system,” he added.
It’s an unfortunate and condemnable incident, but to term it barbaric is an exaggeration. Also the concerned person should have had the courage of his convictions and not submitted himself to this kind of humiliation.