Sheep Call The Shepherd Wolf

A 2016 land deal by Kerala’s Catholic Church ensnares the top clergy in a legal case. As stories on intrigues grow, the laity is furious.

- Siddhartha Mishra

It is a trial of biblical proportions. For the first time ever, a police case has been filed against top functionaries of the Catholic Church in India. The controversy is over a land fraud of the Church—and it came to a head when a first information rep­ort was registered against the chief hierarch of the religious denomination’s Kerala chapter. Cardinal Mar George Alencherry is not just the Major Archbishop of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church, he controls the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly under which the alleged crime happened in the past two years.

On March 6, the state’s high court ord­ered that an FIR be filed against the septuagenarian patriarch for “irregularities” in the deal over a purchase of land 35 km north of Kochi. The single-judge bench also directed the police to name Joshy Puthuva and Sebastian Vadakkum­padan, both priests, besides real-estate agent Saju Varghese. Within a week, on March 12, the police finally filed criminal charges against all the accused.

The case has split the members of the archdiocese right down the middle. Many priests from within the Church are openly speaking out against Alencherry, 72. The laity, said to total around 46 lakh, is also up in arms—and is demanding a greater say in the Church’s day-to-day affairs. As all sorts of allegations and conspiracy theories fly around in full public glare, some say it has the makings of a long-drawn coup against the Cardinal.