Major Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry of Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is in the centre of a controversy in connection with a series of land sales that have brought huge losses to it. A large section of priests in the Church are said to be preparing to petition the Pope over the issue.
The pastoral council of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Church may soon hold a meeting to prepare a report to be sent to the Pope on the land deals while one section within the Church has declared support for the Major Archbishop saying that the decision to sell the lands was taken collectively and there is no point in targeting Mar Alencherry.
The controversy pertains to the sale of prime land belonging to the Church in Kochi city worth tens of crores of rupees to private persons leading to severe monetary losses to it, according to reports. The lands were said to have been sold in two schedules to 36 persons in September, 2016 and between January and August this year with the help of a middleman.
According to sources within the church, Cardinal Alencherry himself had signed in all the land sale documents. Reports quoting
members of the pastoral council said that the Archdiocese could have suffered a loss of several crores of rupees through these land sales. It is also alleged that the services of the middleman was availed without the knowledge of the pastoral council.
“It is Major Archbishop Cardinal Alencherry who had signed in all the documents,” said a priest coming under the Archdiocese. “Had he signed these documents without knowing (the contents)IJ Why were these lands sold without the knowledge of those concernedIJ” he asked. The loss in land sales has been pout at Rs19 crore. A Church-appointed commission, which has already submitted an interim report on the issue, has been asked to submit its final report before January 30. As per reports, a meeting of the pastoral council held on December 21 had decided to submit a complaint to the Pope on the matter. The complaint, it is said, would be on the basis of the commission’s report.
The Church had reportedly sold its lands in order to repay a massive bank loan it had availed for purchasing a vast tract of land at Thuravoor near Angamaly, several kilometers away from Kochi, for a medical college project. “The entire problem arose with the purchase of that land which was in no way suitable for the project,” said a priest.
The Church had borrowed Rs58 crore from a bank to purchase the 23-acre land in 2015 in Thuravoor but the Archdiocese itself abandoned the medical college project later. As the loan, with the interest burden added, became a huge liability, the Church leadership decided to settle it by mobilising money through sale of own land in Kochi, sources said.
“Those who had to sell land have sold it. Those who bought it have got it. What did the Church getIJ The net result was that the Church got only Rs9 crore from the sales. How did this happenIJ” asked a senior priest. Sources said that two members of the Church’s finance committee had resigned after the transparency in the land deals came under suspicion.
“There should be clear answers because the money belongs to the Church, the believers. For the same reason, extreme care should be taken in such matters,” he added. The Church had thought of repurchasing the land it had sold following the controversy, but this became impossible as most of the buyers had had started constructing houses in those plots.
According to sources, the land sale row has pushed Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Church into the worst crisis it has faced in at least three decades. Though majority of the believers and priests are critical of the land deals, the general opinion is that open protests against the Church leadership should be avoided.