Church & Politics – An Un-Holy Alliance
Posted by JoMar 27
It is not a secret that the Church in Kerala has always stood by the Congress party during elections. I have heard a story, that in the early days, during the Sunday sermon, the priest would raise his “hand” up in the air and say “every one should vote“. The raised hand was to indicate that the faithful should vote for Congress party, without openly campaigning for it. I am not sure how authentic this story is, but this was to point out the close alliance between the Congress party and the Church in Kerala.
In my days, I have seen politicians making frequent visits to the Vicars of Churches in their constituency as part of their campaigns. It was also during this time that the late Bishop of Thrissur, Mar. Joseph Kundukulam, compared K Karunakaran to Jesus Christ (I wrote an article in those days against the Bishop’s statement, in a handwritten magazine published by CLC – a Catholic youth organization). K Karunakaran’s friendship with Bishop Kundukulam was very infamous in those days.
Time flew and the Church softened it’s stand against Communists. But it did not last long. With the 7th standard text book and the self-finance college issues, the Church went on a rampant campaign against the Communists, under the leadership of Thrissur Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath and Changanassery Archbishop Mar Joseph Powathil. Now that the elections are approaching, different Churches in Kerala are taking different steps to make sure that they get a fair share of the political pie. But surprisingly, the Congress party chose not to play with the tunes of the Church.
First it was the Thrissur Archbishop, Mar Andrews Thazhath, who supported the candidature of Tom Vadakkan for Thrissur constituency. But the proposal was turned down by AICC, followed by a strong statement from the head of Syro-Malabar Church, Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil. This statement has just added my respect to Mar Varkey Vithayathil, even though his is a lone voice in the Syro-Malabar Church supreme administration.
Cardinal Vithayahil, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) says it is wrong for bishops, priests and Church leaders to intervene in the selection of candidates during the elections.
”The Catholic Church and Christian leaders should not intervene in party politics. Church can ask the people to vote for the right candidates, but should not involve in electioneering and selection of candidates for particular constituencies,” Cardinal Vithayathil told reporters. [ via ]
The Latin Church, which is an influential force in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram districts have gone a step further. The Varappuzha Archbishop, Daniel Acharuparambil, sent a list of four candidates to Sonia Gandhi. But Ramesh Chennithala, the Congress chief of Kerala, rejected the communal interference.
The letter was written by the Varapuzha Archbishop Daniel Acharuparambil, who is also President of the Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council, the body that looks after the social and other activities of the church.
The church has given three other names. The list does not contain the names of sitting Ernakulam Congress legislator and former minister K.V. Thomas or former Congress legislator and former minister Dominic Presentation. [ via ]
The Orthodox Church went even further. When their candidate request was turned down by Congress party, the Orthodox Church in Kerala decided to put up four candidates on their own for the polls. Now this is something new as no Church in Kerala has openly placed it’s candidates in elections.
The Orthodox Church had sent a letter to Sonia Gandhi expressing its wish that one of its members, who are active Congress supporters, be fielded. George Joseph, secretary of the church, said that the Congress had not even acknowledged the letter, said a report from IANS. [ via ]
The Congress party and Sonia Gandhi have wisely turned down the proposals from the Church supremos in all these cases which is a good sign. Or else BJP would have used this chance to accuse the “Christian” Sonia Gandhi playing in tunes of the Church. But now that will not have any substance.
It is clear that the faithful (except the ignorant lot and the power hungry creamy-layer in the community) is not going to blindly follow the orders of the Bishops like Mar Andrews Thazhath or Mar Daniel Acharuparambil. Because whenever the church has sponsored a Congress candidate, with public statements and pastoral letters, he lost. Edezhath, a close confidant of the high priests, lost by over 70,000 votes to an LDF independent in 2004 [via]. Thrissur in particular has a history of failing the over-confident power politicians. History has it that when Karunakaran contested from Thrissur he was defeated and when his son Muraleedharan contested from Thrissur in the very next polls, he too was defeated. In those two years, Thrissurians decided to send a noble man, V V Raghavan (of CPI), to parliament. And this year, it will be very interesting to see the results.
(Image source: Internet)
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4 comments
Comment by anil on March 28, 2009 at 12:09 am
Election is the only time when the common people get there chance to pay back for the all stupidity of the politicians. In the same way elections are the only time when church gets to show its power to the commies for the stupidity they do. What is wrong in that.
Comment by Anup on March 29, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I still do not understand how India can call herself a secular state. Secular is fundamentally the separation of state and church. The state does not interfere in religious activities and the church stays away from matters of state. And the state shows no preference to any religion. However in India the so called ‘minority’ religions seek and get special rights. And the church in kerala is now openly a political organization. I am not sure why the ‘faithful’ allow the priests and bishops to keep saying all this without questioning them. The church is a dictatorship. I have never seen the church ask the opinion of the laity.
About the war with commies – well the commies won the election and has the mandate of the people, maybe not the mandate of the Christians. So when they implement policies, it because they were elected to do so. If you do not like it then vote them out in the next election. But you cannot take to the streets and claim special rights. Anil say’s that elections are the time for the church to show its power – when did the church become a power center? I go to church for my spiritual needs, not to get a political lesson.
Now I read pieces of cardinal vithiyathil’s book. He says BJP is better than the commies. BJP & the hinduvata movement is openly fascist and they want a Hindu nation with all other religious groups to be subordinate to them. Plus the cardinal says that the commies will go to any extend to establish a classless and casteless society – well isn’t that the message of Jesus, all people are equal. The commies may be atheists and they will not allow a politically powerful church, but in India the commies have never stopped anyone from practicing their religion, not even in their party! And in India they do not have a history of prosecuting people on the basis of religion. Imagine what will happen if the Sangh Parivar was to be in power – either we will all be killed (Godra) or converted to hinduism. And the cardinal is OK with this! He says the BJP upholds moral values – see whats happening to women wearing jeans in bangalore? So the cardinal is only bothered about the church’s power not what happens to the people.
I am not saying the commies are right on everything, given their history in china and russia, but so far in India they have stuck to democratic principles. Even in India they have history of supporting the chinese during the indo-china war. And some of their economic policies are plain dump. My point is the church should keep away from politics and stick to spiritual matters. If they commies have been elected let them rule. To me the church’s politics has to do with its power and the church as an organization/corporation and it has nothing to do with the welfare or spiritual needs of the faithful.
Comment by Suresh on April 30, 2009 at 11:41 am
People should not mix relegion and politics.. It is not good for any country.
Comment by xxxxx on August 12, 2009 at 7:16 pm
poy valapaniyum nokada