After a season of Sunday pastoral letters targeting the communists, it was the turn of state CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan to strike back at the Catholic Church.
Tells the institution to keep off politics
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a season of Sunday pastoral letters targeting the communists, it was the turn of state CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan to strike back at the Catholic Church on Sunday.
The party state chief wanted the Church to keep off political affairs. He even accused the Church of acting as a mobilising arm of the opposition led by the Congress.
“Why does the Church act as a mobiliser for the United Democratic Front (UDF)? Religions should confine themselves to religious affairs. They should not interfere with political activity. We are not interfering with their activities,” Vijayan told a party district poll convention in Kozhikode. He said contradictions between the party and the Church remained, but there were grounds for cooperation.
Accused of holding backroom talks with spiritual leaders even as the party takes a confronting line, Vijayan was unequivocal on Sunday when he tried to mark a clear line between God and Caesar.
“The UDF is trying to make a dent in the party (CPIM) by using the Church. The Muslim League is trying to do so among Muslims. We are ready to face it politically,” he said.
CPI(M) leaders have been less harsh on religious heads even as bishops made an open cry for the believers to come out of the communist fold. Inter-Church Council chairman archbishop Joseph Powathil had even exhorted the flock to make sure they send their wards only to Christian institutions.
Almost all the dioceses echoed the sentiment through letters read out amid Sunday masses.
The Churches had joined hands with another dominant religious group, Nair Service Society, to oppose the proposed education reforms.
A joint statement last month said: “The government should not forget the fact that religious and social organisations have taken it as their responsibility to set up schools and other educational institutions in different parts of the state as they found that the government alone was unable to meet the state’s educational requirements.”
s_don@dnaindia.net
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