Our Bishop and His Three Passions

Chicago Syro Malabar Diocesan authorities, including its bishop, have only three passions. First and foremost, impose the Marthoma Cross and Altar Veil on American Syro Malabar faithful at any cost. Second, raise and acquire money by any means. Third, total and absolute control over the faithful by nook and crook.

To realize his first passion, that of placing the Marthoma Cross on the altar, the bishop has resorted to all kinds of lies and duplicities. Chicago is a prime example. He lied about his real intentions and misled the Chicago Syro Malabar community, in order to realize his dream of a new Cathedral, at the completion of which he showed his true color. His despotic actions in Chicago has irreparably damaged the unity of that community.

After Chicago, it was the turn of Koppel, Texas. The arrogant bishop destroyed that young and vibrant community by insisting on imposing his personal mis-beliefs on them. Even though the parishioners overwhelmingly repudiated the bishop, he is not ready to throw in the towel. Like a power-hungry tyrant he is still terrorising this community. He is using his minions to create trouble and confusion in the whole community. The whole world has witnessed how willing he is to destroy a community in the name of saving it. The tyranny of this bishop has, no doubt, seriously wounded the Syro Malabar church in America.

The second distinctive characteristic of our church authorities, is their insatiable greed for money. It can be safely said the underlying motive behind their every endeavor is money. Some of their recent actions have clearly demonstrated to what a low level they can stoop, as long as there is a return in Dollars. Everything is money-centered. They confiscated the donations the Koppel faithful made to retreat master Fr. Xavier Khan. They tried to shake down the Shalom Retreat team to collect money from retreat attendees. When they refused they were insulted and unceremoniously packed off. It is a strange new phenomenon that the authorities even abuse retreats and spiritual conventions to squeeze money from the faithful. There is scantly any accountability for money thus raised. It is safe to say the greed of our clergy knows no bound.

By now most of our readers know, the Koppel church bank account was frozen by the bishop. He has thus far refused the demand of the parish council to reverse this action. He responded by opening a clandestine account through one of his local minions and adding the names of two diocesan officials. The parishioners have responded by withholding their donation which has severely affected their Sunday collection. The vicar then tried to intimidate the public by threatening foreclosure. When that failed, he came up with a novel idea, advanced by the bishop's binamis. A certain eye-hop man would advance the necessary funds to run the church in return for total administrative control. This proposal was, unsurprisingly, laughed off at the Parish Council meeting.

Now we hear ominous things from various sources. We hear that the diocesan authorities are considering to consolidate and centralize the financial management of all the various parish churches and missions under it. All the finances of all the parishes and missions will be controlled by a central authority, based of course, in Chicago. The way it works is: all the collections from all the parishes and missions, minus petty expenses, will be deposited into one bank account, controlled solely by a diocesan finance chief. (Almost like it is done in Kerala, where all the revenue from every govt office, is deposited into the govt. treasury.) Any and all cash disbursements will be done by the Diocesan Finance Committee with the approval of the Procurator. In other words, the local vicar, kaikkaran, or parish council will have no say in the financial matters of their own parish.

Thirdly, it must be said, that our diocesan authorities are such control freaks. They meddle in local parish council elections and appointments. They take every step, legal and illegal, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical, to secure a majority in any elective body. They reward their flunkies with positions in councils and committees. They nominate unworthy people to elected bodies to guarantee a majority in every decision. Time and again they have demonstrated their ability to play dirty politics as well as any seasoned Kerala politician. They can find any excuses to exclude candidates they do not like and vice-versa. They, without exception, want people to be loyal to them rather than the faithful they represent. They will promote any fool to a parish, or even diocesan position as long as they tow the official line and support the bishop's idiotic policies without any question.

It is almost ten years since our diocese was established. It is about time, we, the members of this diocese sat back and considered the good or bad that has happened to our community since the establishment of this diocese. What good this diocese has done to our community, except providing jobs and income to a few privileged priests? Other than providing an arena for chotta politicians to play and act big, of what real use has it been to the average faithful? Other than sowing the seeds of discord and division what has our bishop done for the benefit of the faithful? Other than promoting his pagan believes in Marthoma Cross and altar veil, what social, liturgical or religious contribution or innovation has this bishop and his team made? Above all, are we spiritually and morally better of now, than we were before the establishment of this diocese? We are sure any straight-thinking person's answer to the above questions will be negative. We have a diocese for the sake of having a diocese-that is the plain truth. We have created a parasitic diocesan bureaucracy, that is is bleeding this community dry. We are not getting our money's worth, but headaches and heartaches.