Kozhikode: Maliyekkal M.L. George, 71, started his mission to liberate his fellow laymen of the Syro-Malabar Church from the clutches of alien laws and establish the rights of laymen over the Church properties back in early 1990s. At a time when scams and controversies haunt the Church, George and the organisation Catholic Laymen’s Association (CLA) headed by him are happy that more believers are listening to their contentions.
George, who plans a sit-in in front of the chief minister’s official residence in Thiruvananthapuram demanding implementation of the Church Act, is a crusader. He told DC that if the Church and the government had given ear to their warning bells decades back, such controversies could have been averted.
“Earlier it was the family heads of a parish who took decisions on the administration of each church. But later imposing the canon laws alien to the nation, a few Church officials took over the rights of the laymen,” he added.
In 1998, the CLA approached the court against the Church for asserting its power on the properties misusing alien and outdated laws. “Canon laws are not Indian and accepting it for Church administration is against the rights of people and the sovereignty of the land”, he said. “Bishops and Church have no rights to intervene in the ‘other than spiritual’ matters of laymen, including the properties of Church.
The Church spent huge sums of money by roping in top lawyers to get the petition rejected, but the court granted CLA permission to represent the Church”, he said. He still hoped the state as well as judiciary would open the eyes to bless the 99 percent laymen of the Church with justice recognizing their right over Church properties against the hardly one percent clergy who enjoy the properties to meet their pompous needs, he said.
