Lay people’s group stages protest outside bishop’s house

KOCHIA faithful protest outside bishop's house over archdiocesan administrator's failure to address demands against "rebel priests."

A group of faithful of the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly held a demonstration outside the bishop’s house and St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica in the city on Tuesday protesting against what they called the “failure” of archdiocesan administrator Bosco Puthur to address their demands for action against “rebel priests” in the archdiocese and the beginning of the Synod-prescribed mass in the archdiocese.

According to a spokesman of the protesters, eight demands had been placed before the archdiocesan administrator. He had promised that answers to their demands would be provided within a fortnight. However, even weeks after the promise was made, the archdiocesan administration had not bothered to answer the faithful, he said. According to the spokesman, 1,000 people participated in the demonstration outside the bishop’s house on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the group opposed to the Synod mass claimed that vigilance forums had been formed in all parishes in the archdiocese. Such forums were formed to combat instances of “violence” and “divisiveness” in different parishes in the archdiocese, claimed Riju Kanjookkaran, spokesman for Almaya Munnettam.