From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Apr 13: In a first major offensive against the group of priests coming under the banner of the Karnataka Kannada Catholic Yajakara Balaga (Karnataka Catholic Priests’ Association) and their supporters, who have been creating problems in the Archdiocese of Bangalore since the last several years by raising the bogey of Kannada language in liturgy, a large group of Catholics held a demonstration in front of the Archbishop’s House on Saturday and later submitted a memorandum to the Archbishop seeking excommunication of the priests involved in ''un-Christian activities."
The gathering of Catholics and Christians, who had assembled in front of the Archbishop’s House under the banner of the Federation of Karnataka Catholics and Christians Associations (FKCCA) under the leadership of its President T J Abraham, anti-corruption and social activist, also comprised Federation of Konkani Catholic Associations (FKCA) Chairperson Aida D’Cunha, former FKCA Chairman Charles Gomes and other key leaders, met Archbishop Most Rev Dr Bernard Moras and presented their memorandum listing 15-points as the grounds for seeking the extraordinary step of excommunication of the consecrated priests.
The FKCCA, which has also forwarded a similar memorandum to the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the highest decision-making body of all Bishops in India, at its office in New Delhi, said all the priests involved in anti-Catholic and un-Christian conduct and behaviour must be Excommunicated from the Catholic Church, under the provisions of the Canon Law forthwith, as they are guilty of willfully violating and deliberately flouting their solemn religious vows of obedience and loyalty to the Ecclesial superiors.
''In addition, some of the above-mentioned priests are guilty of violating the Sixth and Ninth Commandments that forbid killing or bearing false witness, which are consequently sufficient grounds for their automatic excommunication," the memorandum said.
Abraham said the FKCCA has already received support from several Diocesan and Religious priests as well as Sisters. ''However, we have asked all the religious priests and sisters not to openly come out in support at this stage. They can join us later as and when the situation demands. This is our first step. We have mobilized a gathering of 300 persons now. It will be followed up with a gathering of 3,000 and then 30,000 and finally 3,00,000 from all over Karnataka," he said pointing out that the momentum is building up as majority of the Catholics and Christians feel ''enough is enough and that it is necessary to stand up and fight."
Guilty of Causing Disrepute to Church
''We, the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Bangalore, wish to express our deep sense of regret and distress at having to submit this representation on some of the burning issues pertaining to the Archdiocese of Bangalore, especially the “un-Christian" activities of some of our own consecrated priests, along with some lay persons and sincerely request that the points raised by us after serious thought and deliberations be given serious consideration and acted upon immediately in the interests of maintaining the Unity, Dignity and Sanctity of the Church, as also to instill the faith and confidence in our faithful," Abraham said in the memorandum.
The immediate cause for submitting this representation, he said was the fallout of the investigations by the Bangalore City Police in the gruesome and most brutal murder of a highly scholarly, erudite, peace-loving, well-respected and mild priest like Rev Fr K J Thomas, the Rector of the St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary, Bangalore, on the midnight of March 31-April 1, 2013, within the precincts of the Seminary itself.
The ghastly murder of Fr K J Thomas, by the assailants and the ransacking of his room and other rooms in the Seminary by the attackers, and the inability of the police to crack the case and track the suspected murderers had shocked and saddened not only us but all peace-loving citizens in the city.
A large number of organizations had organized candle-light vigils and other forms of protests, offered prayers and Holy Eucharist for the successful completion of the investigation besides submitting memoranda to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister K J George, while the Archbishop of Bangalore had met the Chief Minister, Home Minister and the State Director General of Police besides the State Governor H R Bhardwaj on different occasions. Some of the family members of the deceased Fr K J Thomas had even approached the Karnataka High Court by moving a Writ Petition seeking entrustment of the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Ulterior Motives behind Agitation
''We strongly suspect that some priests and other powerful persons in the Archdiocese and possibly in other Dioceses are either directly or indirectly involved in the ghastly murder of a highly respected and well-loved person like Fr K J Thomas, either to gain control of the Seminary or even gobble up of valuable property granted to the Archdiocese for establishing the Seminary, especially in view of the hard reality that an acre of land in the area is worth around Rs 5 to 10 crore and that the Seminary has several acres of underutilized land, even though portions of the land granted by the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore had been alienated in favour of other religious congregation and even for the establishment of a high school for Girls," the memorandum explained.
It was in these circumstances and almost a full year after the murder of Fr K J Thomas, the Karnataka Director General of Police and Bangalore City Police Commissioner and other top police officers announced at a widely publicized news conference on March 21, 2014, the arrest of three persons , including 2 priests – Fr William Patrick, Parish Priest of the Kengeri Church, and Fr Elias Daniel, belonging to the Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCD) - and a lay-person Peter, for the murder of Fr K J Thomas. The DGP, City Police Commissioner as well as the Joint Police Commissioner of Bangalore, who addressed the press, had disclosed that the investigation was ''incomplete" and a more startling revelation was that ''several more persons are likely to be arrested soon."
Though almost after a full year, the police claimed to have cracked the murder case and achieved a major breakthrough by arresting 3 persons, including 2 priests, with this the faithful as well as the clergy and religious brothers and sisters could heave a sigh of partial relief, with the assurance from the police that ''the investigation would be completed soon and more arrests would be made in the due course."
''But, we have been deeply pained, shocked and angered by the action of some of our own priests and laypersons, who had addressed a widely publicized news conference at the Bangalore Press Club on March 22, 2014, and made their outlandish and evidently unfounded claims in public, that the 3 arrested persons were 'totally innocent’ and that they had been 'falsely implicated and even framed.’
These priests went to the extent of claiming and blaming without producing any shred of evidence, that our beloved Archbishop of Bangalore, State Home Minister K J George, and the former DCP Victor D’Souza, who had retired from service on February 28, 2014 of 'hatching a conspiracy’ to pin the blame for the murder of Fr K J Thomas on the 3 'innocent persons’ to fix them," the memorandum said pointing out that it was the duty of the Archbishop as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Seminary to vigorously pursue the case and exert pressure on the authorities to expedite the investigation to nab the culprits and take necessary action as per law.
Priests Identified, Named
The memorandum has named the following priests, who have been named as the ring-leaders: Fr Chalkere Chowrappa Selvaraj (Chasara), Parish Priest of St Joseph’s Church in Chamarajpet, Fr A Thomas, Parish Priest of Kristha Karunalaya Church Jaraganahalli, Kanakapura Road and also the Principal/trustee of Christ School, Marianapalya Road, Kaglipura, privately owned and run by his own Carmel Seva Sangam Trust, Mariapura and Fr S Bartholomew, Parish Priest of Parish Priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Tumkur, and Fr Fathiraj.
In addition, names of the following priests have been cited in the memorandum for their involvement in the so-called agitation spearheaded by the Kannada Catholic Priests Association: Fr L Arulappa, Manager & Correspondent St Aloysius Educational Institutions, Sarvajna Nagara, Fr Antappa, Archbishop's House, Fr J Santiago Administrator, St Mary's Minor Basilica Church Shivajinagar, Fr J Francis Xavier, also from St Mary’s Basillica, Fr J Balaraj, Parish Priest, St Pius X Church, St Thomas Town Post, Fr R Balraj, Parish Priest, St Joseph's Church, Channapatna, Ramanagar District, Fr C Peter, Assistant Administrator, Legal, Rent and Property, Archbishop's House, Fr James Prabhu, Parish Priest, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Mariapura, Thattuguppe Post.
All the priests named in the memorandum, according to FKCCA President T J Abrahm, have been ''the main trouble-makers in the Archdiocese of Bangalore, for their own selfish reasons and ulterior motives of gaining positions for themselves or their supporters, including some of the silent and behind-the-scene kingpins, who are angling for key Ecclesiastical positions in the Archdiocese."
The Kannada Catholic priests, who have been publicly agitating against the Archbishop and causing disrepute to not only the Church but the entire Christian community by their un-Christian and anti-priest behaviour, by ''pretending that it is meant for gaining primacy for the Kannada language in the liturgical celebrations, only to misguide people and shamelessly causing violent protests and law and order problems in several churches, including the Christ the King Church, Yeshwanthpur, which is adjoining the St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary, by going to the extent of pouring acid on the then Parish Priest, Fr Lawrence Noronha, obstructing Holy Eucharist at St John the Baptist Church, Vijayanagar, and physically assaulting and attacking Fr C Jacob, a Kannadiga priest, while celebrating the “Holy Mass" in Kannada, in the St Mary’s Church at Hegde Nagar and several other churches over the past several years, especially and intentionally during the Holy Week Liturgical celebrations preceding Easter or Christmas celebrations."
''Kannada in Liturgy is just a Bogey"
''Will anyone fighting for the cause of Kannadigas attack Kannadiga Priests while celebrating a Mass in Kannada?," Abraham asked and mentioned that these priests with their anti-social supporters, including those from the self-processed communal forces and anti-minorities, especially Christians and Muslims, bringing Kannada writers and other busy-bodies like Chidananda Murthy and Kannada Rakshana Sene etc have been holding violent protests, demonstrations on the streets and in front of the Archbishop’s Residence and even preventing Holy Eucharistic celebrations in several places or forcing the Church authorities to conduct liturgical celebrations under police protection.
''We have authentic and credible information obtained from various sources regarding the so-called widespread fund collections carried out by these priests through several fraudulent means and organizations, which according to our reliable information, runs into several crores of rupees to finance and sustain their sectarian and selfish agenda," the memorandum claimed.
''These people are creating an impression that the whole episode is against the Anti-Kannadiga attitude of the church authorities and aimed at fighting actions/moves that are intended to suppress the demands of Kannada speaking Catholics in Karnataka," it said, adding: ''This is absolutely false and fabricated, only to misguide and fool the Kannada speaking Catholics’ in Karnataka and make Catholics in Karnataka feel frustrated and disgusted with the Catholic Church itself. We have reliably learnt that it is a conspiracy to intentionally create an unhealthy atmosphere in the Catholic Church and also to divert the attention away from the actual issue only to save the culprits in the murder case."
Reiterating the charges leveled by him at a press conference recently on the huge sums of money collected by the priests belonging to the so-called Kannada Catholic Association, he said that ''documentary evidences of police complaints regarding the some of the shameful and unlawful activities, violent incidents and other illegal activities involving most of these priests in different police stations, which would be furnished in due course."