Will help family 'unplanning': Kerala church

Worried over what it calls the decline in the numbers of its community young, the Catholic Church in Kerala is planning medical schemes for reversal of tubectomy among women and remedial support for infertile couples.

Fr Jose Kottayil, secretary to Kerala Catholic Bishops Council’s (KCBC) Commission for Family, said the church wants financially-sound families to beget more than two children.

“The church will extend support to women who want to undergo reversal of tubectomy or recanalisation. For this, the church will work out cost-effective packages in the hospitals it runs.”

Imagine the out cry it would have caused if a Hindu Leader had said the same thing!!! In fact, the entire assorted secular brigade went into a trance when Sudarshanji raised the same issue few years back.

“Straight From Heart” a biography of Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil

A biography of Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church is creating shock waves in political and religious circle in Kerala. As expected, “secular” national media has underplayed this biography.

Cardinal in his biography has some good words for BJP. He says -

'The commendable thing about the party is that they want to preserve the good aspects of Indian culture like modesty of women and promoting certain moral values, for which they would opt for stricter media censorship. For them religion is very important and they support democracy and human rights.
Besides protecting ancient culture and heritage of India, like Vedas, Upanishads and the great philosophical teachings to the six systems of Indian philosophy, BJP respects, preserves and promotes knowledge of Sanskrit and Ayurveda.'
The party is a 'great defender of our many achievements of the past'.

The worst criticism was reserved for CPM whom he called a ‘‘greater threat than BJP’’. The book says:

'The Marxist fundamentalism is a greater threat than the religious fundamentalism of the BJP. The Navy, the Army and the Air Force will come under their complete control. We can reasonably expect that what happened in China under Mao will happen in India under their rule.'

'Where is the logic of democracy if they are convinced atheists? But if they are atheists against their conscience and belief, then they are not true to themselves. Convinced atheists cannot be democratic. Democracy is based on respect for the individual and on the rule 'of the people, by the people, for the people,'

The Marxist party will use all kinds of tactics to strengthen itself in places where it is in power. That they will do throughout India once they get to power at the Centre, will be no different from Mao or Stalin

Catholic church also came in for very harsh criticism. The biography says

I would say to a great extent our nuns are not emancipated women. They are often kept under submission by the fear of revenge by priests. That's how the priests get away with whatever humiliation they heap upon them. It is a pitiable situation from which somebody has to liberate them.

A big complaint of our nuns is that the diocesan priests are treating them like servants, making them wash their clothes, prepare their food, wash the churches, etc and that too without getting paid. These are all unjust ways of treating the women religious.''

He was also critical of Vaticans sway over Churches here in India and indicated his total disagreement with the tendency of the Roman Curia to impose its decisions on bishops, often taken without adequate consultation

The Major Archbishop says

“I better not say more on this subject in public because it has agonised me many times, not only me but also many of our other bishops. I know the feelings of my fellow bishops. We are all going through a sort of crucifying obedience.”

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Kerala nun's sexcapade stuns church

A nun who was caught on a cellphone video clip having sex in a hospital room in Kochi has been stripped of her nunhood and sent back home.

The incident that happened at the hospital run by the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (CMC) at Aluva has left the clergy stunned.

The 37-year-old nun hailing from Alappuzha had attained nunhood 20 years ago and was employed as a receptionist of the hospital, according to a senior hospital official. “Some of our well-wishers rang us up and said they had come across a familiar face in a video that was being circulated,’’ she said when contacted over phone.

The church authorities inspected the clip and found that there was substance in the allegation. When the nun was shown the video she admitted that the woman in the film was indeed her. The nun was having an affair with the hospital driver.

“She also revealed that they had sex in a room in the hospital, but that she had no idea that the encounter was being filmed,’’ the source said.

However, there are also indications that the video may have been taken by a third person. The nun was repentant and agreed to renounce nunhood.

“I can only say that she is no more with us and is back home,’’ the source said. She also said that the driver was well-behaved and had taken up the employment only about four months ago.

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Amen — an autobiography of a nun

Kerala Catholic Church is facing fresh embarrassment from a tell-all autobiography written

by a nun who recently quit the Order alleging harassment from superiors.

‘Amen — an autobiography of a nun’, released last week, is written by Dr Sister Jesme, 52, who was the Principal of St Mary’s College, Thrissur, till last August when she quit the Congregation of Mother Carmelite (CMC).

“Dedicated to Jesus”, Amen is explicit in its details of the sexual repression and harassment behind the Church walls as well as the draconian rules and “greed” of the Order.  Starting with her first days in the Church, 30 years ago, she talks of priests forcing novices to have relations with them and the closet homosexuality within nun ran.

The book says Jesme herself was forced into such a relationship by a fellow nun, and that her complaints to a senior nun were ignored. According to her, the other nun said she preferred such a relationship as it ruled out pregnancy. There were others who had affairs with priests, she writes. Another passage in Amen deals with a chance encounter Jesme had with a priest in Bangalore while on her way to Dharwar to attend a UGC refresher course in English.

Talking about the Church’s draconian rules, Jesme writes in the book that she was not allowed to go home when her father died, or to even pray some extra hours for his soul. “I was able to see my father barely 15 minutes before the funeral. The alibi of the superiors was that the then senior sisters were not even lucky enough to see the bodies of their parents.”

Jesme’s autobiography includes a poignant version by her of how the convent authorities tried to twice prove that she had mental problems and get her admitted into a rehab centre after she reportedly spoke out against the malpractices within the Order.

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Other recent controversies in last one year:-

1. A Bishop raised a storm following his decision to adopt a 39-year old woman as his daughter. Bishop John Thattumkal was suspended by the Vatican on Thursday (October 23) for his decision to adopt a 39-year-old woman as his daughter. Bishop Thattumkal is the first Catholic prelate to be suspended in India's 2,000-year-old Church history

2. Anupa Mary, a nun at the St Mary's Convent at Kollam, committed suicide after she was made to do all the chores in the convent and was sexually harassed by the head of the convent.

3. A Church study has found that 25 per cent of nuns in Kerala were not happy with their way of life. incidents of nuns eloping with priests or laymen have been on the rise recently.

4. Sister Abhaya Murder case in which two Catholic priests and a nun were arrested.

5. A nun who was caught on a cellphone video clip having sex in a hospital room in Kochi has been stripped of her nunhood and sent back home. The incident that happened at the hospital run by the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (CMC) at Aluva has left the clergy stunned

Last year Activists of the youth wing of CPM - Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) took out marches to Hindu ashrams in Kerala Alleging Malpractices there. Will DYFI have BALLS to take out marches against Kerala Catholic Church on the basis of above allegations?

Is this acceptable in a secular state?

He had erected hundreds of huge hoardings all over the twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad welcoming people to his 'Grand Christmas celebrations'.

He told the congregation that he had experienced many miraculous changes in his own life after he adopted Christianity. He exhorted the people, stressing that God will take care of everything  and everybody if people have faith in Him. he said.

"All you have to do is believe in Him,""No doctor has a treatment for AIDS but there is a supernatural doctor who can do it,"

In normal circumstances would have ignored him as one of those looneys.... But this is none other that Son in Law of Andhra Chief Minsiter YSR Reddy.

So much for secularism!!!!!

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Sister Abhaya was hacked to death with axe: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the 1992 murder of Sister Abhaya, told a court on Tuesday that she was hacked to death with an axe by the two priests and a nun arrested in the case, 16 years after her death.
On Nov 19, the 13th team of the CBI set up to probe the case  arrested Father Jose Putarika, 56, a former Malayalam professor at a Kottayam college where Abhaya studied; Father Thomas Kottor, 61, the Diocesan chancellor of the Catholic Church at Kottayam; and Sister Seffi, who was a resident of the convent when the incident took place.

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The full story

Investigation officer suicide

Sister Abhaya Murder Case

This Month is the sixteenth Anniversary of the mysterious death of Sister Abhaya. She was found lifeless in the well of the Pius X Convent and the hostel. When the body was found, church authorities told the media that she had committed suicide. They revealed that she was preparing for her higher secondary examination and was undergoing treatment for mental illness. 

The case was `investigated' by the local police for 17 days. But due to efforts of Local Action Committee and intervention of human rights activist Joemon Puthenpurakkal government  handed over the investigation to the Crime Branch. In the course of the nine months probe under the crime branch, to the shock of all including the court, vital evidences and records related to the case simply disappeared or were purposefully destroyed. It was at this juncture, the CBI was forced to step in.

While the CBI investigation was in progress, the Superintendent of Crime Branch, K.T. Michael, who initially investigated and reported the death as "suicide", obtained written permission from the RDO (Rural Development Officer) to take possession of Abhaya's personal articles - her veil, chappels, personal diary and such other personal goods that are of high evidentiary value from the RDO court. The whereabouts of all those items which has been considered as critical evidences, are found missing now.

CBI started investigating under the direct supervision of its officer Varghese P. Thomas  a upright officer awarded with the prestigious President's National Medal. He brain-mapped fifteen suspects and when he was about to brain-map Fr. Kotoor, Its then he got orders from his S.P. Thiagarajan to stop investigations. Due to these pressures the Upright Officer decided to quit his job in 1994, when he had still 10 years service. Then Team after Team of CBI investigated the case with no result. Some even pleaded with the concerned court to allow to close the case. The present CBI team team probing the case is the fifth one.

Thirteen years into the case, he New Indian Express (legacy of Arun Shourie) brought startling revelations that Sr. Abhaya was not only killed but raped and killed! The chemical examination at the Government Forensic Lab pointed to Abhaya being raped before murder. But The high-ups had used their clout to Suppress and a false laboratory chemical examination report given to Police and CBI. In view of new Information, High Court ordered CBI to speed up investigations. In a twist to the case, the forensic professor of Kottayam Medical College informed CBI that the post-mortem report of Sr. Abhaya is missing from the bound book of 100 post-mortem reports—99 reports available and one torn off!

Strangely, Ravindran,  the scientific officer at the Chemical Examiners Laboratory, and his wife Ajitha Kumari, were killed in a Mysterious accident last month. It is widely believed that Ravindran was behind the recent revelation to the New Indian Express about the tampering of the chemical examination report of the vaginal swab and smear of Sister Abhaya.

Scuttling the Murder Investigation of Sister Abhaya is a perfect combination of money, social, political police and administrative power. Sister Abhaya has become synonymous with injustice. Will the murderers be brought to justice?

The Christian organisations who cave been proactive in Getting Saints should be take more interest in this case and make sure Justice is done

Technorati Tags: Church,Corruption,India

 

 

Like Kerala, USSR Commies also had closet Christians

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader who oversaw the collapse of the Soviet Union, has admitted for the first time that he is a Christian.  The Communist leader was quoted as saying.

“St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ. His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life. It was through St Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb.  I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity,”

This interesting considering the long held belief that it was "Coke and Pope" who were primarily responsible for Downfall of USSR!

Technorati Tags: CPM,International Relations,Communism

In Search of a Second Miracle

India will soon get its first female saint. And no, its not Mother Teresa.  Sister Alphonsa from Kottayam, Kerala has pipped Mother Teresa, who is "more well-known and a Nobel laureate".

The Missionaries of Charity indicated that they were ""trying their best to fast-track the procedure of conferring sainthood on Mother Teresa".

The Vatican has to find another miracle before they can declared Mother Teresa as a saint. Her first Miracle was "healing of an Indian woman with a cancerous tumour."

Sister Alphonsa was beatified after a handicapped boy of Kottayam was cured of his deformity as he prayed at Alphonsa’s tomb.

I am still waiting to hear a word from the enlightened scientific and CPM led Atheist community in India on their opinion on these Miracles.

Technorati Tags: Church