The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Pastoral letter blasts educational policies

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Monday, Dec 10, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Pastoral letter blasts educational policies

Says plan is to spread atheism and materialism

Thiruvananthapuram: The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, on Sunday, asked its members to ensure that materialists and atheists were kept away from responsible positions in Church-run institutions.

The Church has been on a collision course with the Left Democratic Front government for the past few months.

A pastoral letter read out at the Sunday congregations in churches under the Thrissur Archdiocese cautioned the faithful against getting lured by the Communist parties, thinking that their activities were confined to the political domain.

In fact, the real agenda of these parties was to spread atheism and materialism. Their facade of social service was part of a strategy to market their philosophy, the pastoral letter issued by Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhathu said. The ultimate aim of these parties was to gain power by luring people to their side. But the countries where they held power had collapsed, it said.

Alluding to the government’s educational policies, the church communiqué said the aim of this reform agenda was not social progress but to infuse atheism and materialism in the education system.

“The parties that shed tears in the name of the poor have never bothered to run schools or hospitals for the poor. They are now trying to encroach upon the institutions set up and nurtured by others,” it said. Over the past few months, Catholic prelates in the State had issued a series of pastoral letters, voicing strong protest against the policies of the government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist). — PTI

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