The Hindu : Kerala News : Pastoral letters have lost relevance: MP

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Monday, Dec 17, 2007
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Kerala

Pastoral letters have lost relevance: MP

Nambadan terms them diatribes against the government

‘Portraying activists of a party as atheists is absurd’
‘Aim of letters is to hide the disunity among prelates’

Thrissur: Pastoral letters issued by prelates of the Catholic Church have lost their relevance as the faithful no longer take heed of them, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Lonappan Nambadan said here on Sunday.

In a recent pastoral letter, Archbishop of Thrissur Mar Andrews Thazhathu had described the CPI(M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) as supporters of ‘atheist and materialistic movements’ without taking their names.

The letter also called upon the faithful to take up the challenges posed by the ‘atheists’ to the Church. The followers and sympathisers of atheist and materialistic movements should not be considered for posting as office-bearers of the Church’s feeder organisations such as the Christian Life Community, the Saint Vincent De Paul Society, Pastor Councils of the Diocese, the Kerala Catholic Youth Movement and other Church-run institutions, the letter had said.

A similar pastoral letter was also issued by Bishop James Pazhayattil of the Irinjalakuda diocese which was read out in nearly 500 churches on December 9, Mr. Nambadan said.

He asserted that the faithful no longer took heed of the letters. He termed the pastoral letters ‘diatribes’ against the State government, its policies in the education sector and CPI(M) activists, in particular.

It was absurd to portray all political activists of a national party as atheists and materialists, Mr. Nambadan said.

“I took oath in Parliament in the name of God,” he said.

Mr. Nambadan, former Minister and active worker of affiliated organisations of the Church such as the All Kerala Catholic Congress, said the main objective of issuing pastoral letters was to ‘hide the disunity’ among the prelates.

‘Time has changed’

He said it was a rule that pastoral letters on subjects of State-wide importance could be issued only in consultation with the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council.

Mr. Nambadan said there was a time when the faithful took the pastoral letter blindly and acted accordingly as they had no sources to verify the contents.

“Now that has changed,” he said. — PTI

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