Kerala - Kottayam   

Bishop demands probe into police action

Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM: Bishop Yuhanon Mor Philaxinos, metropolitan of the Malabar Diocese of Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, has demanded a judicial inquiry into the Aluva seminary issue.

Speaking to presspersons on Thursday,Mor Philaxinos said that the fact that police had launched a massive lathicharge against priests and believers showed the criminal nature of the State constabulary. The priests and believers were treated like enemies, he pointed out and said all sections of people irrespective of religious affiliation should come out in the open against such acts.

Bishop Philaxinos said a move to make political capital out of the crisis in the church was evident .

"The result of the State suppression of the Patriarchal faction should be revealed through democratic means," he said. He said the question of succession in the church could not be decided through the execution of a Will. There were constitutional obligations, which have to be fulfilled, he said and added that such issues did not matter now.

The arrangement made during the fast by Catholicos Baselius Thomas I entrusting the administration in case of his demise to Bishop Joseph Mor Gregorios Metropolitan of Kochi Diocese was a temporary arrangement, he said.

Mor Philaxinos, the senior most bishop, was in the U.S. on a visit at that time. As per the constitution, a new Catholicose could be elected through democratic process of the Episcopal Synod.

Such a synod would have to be presided over by the senior most metropolitan of the church, with the approval of the Patriarch of Antioch, he said.

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