The permanent synod of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has instructed the bishops and priests under it to put an end to the war of words over a controversial land deal in which Major Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry is allegedly involved even as the Cardinal admitted that there had been some technical lapses from his side in the land deal.
The synod issued the instruction after an emergency meeting held on New Year Day in a desperate bid to salvage the reputation and credibility of the Archdiocese, its leadership and the entire Syro-Malabar Church after the war over the land deal between opposing sections within the clergy and laity spilled over to the streets.
The synod asked the bishops and priests in the Archdiocese to abstain from making public statements about the issue of the land sales, which had led to the loss of several crores of rupees. It instructed Auxiliary Bishops Sebastian Adayanthrath and Jose Puthenveettil to take the initiative for establishing unity among priests and bishops. As per the decisions taken at the meeting of the synod, the concerned council of the Archdiocese and critics of the Cardinal would jointly inform the media that the issue that had been rocking the Church had been settled. It also said that the pastoral council of the Archdiocese could decide on matters like petitioning the Pope against Cardinal Alencherry.
The controversy pertains to the sale of over three acres of prime land belonging to the Archdiocese in Kochi city worth tens of crores of rupees to private persons. The lands were sold in two schedules to 36 persons in September, 2016 and between January and August last year and Cardinal Alencherry himself had signed in all the land sale documents.
The Archdiocese had suffered a loss of a minimum of Rs 18 crore through these land sales for which a middleman, whose credibility has now come under suspicion, had been engaged allegedly under instructions from the Major Archbishop himself.
A commission of the Archdiocese which is looking into the matter is to submit its final report this month-end.
At the same time, reports said Cardinal Alencherry had admitted at the meeting of the permanent synod on Monday that there had been technical lapses from his side in the procedures related to the sale of the Church-owned land. He is reported to have informed the synod that he had apologized to the priests in the Archdiocese three times for these lapses.
The synod accepted the Cardinal’s admission and decided to discuss that and the entire issue in detail at its meeting scheduled for next week. Though the synod had issued its instructions aimed at restoring peace within the Archdiocese, how the priests and prominent laity members who were critical of the Cardinal would respond to it is not yet clear.
The permanent synod was forced to go into an emergency meeting after a section of the clergy threatened to petition the Pope against the Cardinal and a laity forum sent a letter to the supreme Church head seeking action against him. A senior priest in the Archdiocese said, “The synod has done what it had to do but there are many questions that need to be answered.”
The Archdiocese had sold its lands in order to repay at least part of a massive bank loan it had availed for purchasing 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, according to the Archdiocese itself.
The Archdiocese had borrowed Rs 58 crore from a bank to purchase the 23-acre land in 2015 in Thuravoor but it abandoned the medical college project later. However, it suffered a huge loss in the sale of its lands and the net result is that the liabilities of the Archdiocese are now reportedly standing at over Rs 80 crore.