Chennai bishop meets Pope

Chennai – M. Ezra Sargunam, a bishop of the Evangelical Church of India and a former chairman of the Minority Commission of Tami Nadu, had a private audience with Pope John Paul II on June 16.

The bishop presented the Pope a specially made miniature of St. Thomas, one of the first apostles of Jesus Christ and one of the very first Christian missionaries to India whose last remains are interred in Chennai.

On the occasion of his visit, the bishop also sought the Vatican's assistance to fulfill a dream project to install a rock–cut statue of St. Thomas in Chennai.

The books the Chennai–based cleric presented the Pope included a copy of "Kuralovium" (a commentary on Thirukural), written by DMK leader and former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi.

Bishop Sargunam sought the Pope's blessings "for the welfare of the 40 percent of Indians living below the poverty line and for the emancipation of the underprivileged and the socially and economically marginalized".

(courtesy IANS)