Christian protest turns violent in Kerala

An Orthodox Christian protest march in Kerala turned violent forcing the police to retaliate, leaving several priests, policemen and media people injured.

The protestors, February 13, from the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, a faction of an ancient Christian group, denounced the state government decision of allowing the rival Jacobite Syrian Church to conduct prayers at a disputed seminary complex.

The protesters owe allegiance to a prelate based in Kerala, while members of the rival faction, popularly called the Jacobites, consider another prelate in Damascus, Syria, their supreme spiritual leader.

For several years, the two factions have fought for custody of several churches and properties their forefathers once shared. The seminary complex in Alwaye, near Thiruvananthapuram, is among the disputed properties. Popularly called Thrikkunnathu Seminary, it houses an ancient church, several buildings and land.

According to UCANews, the police resorted to using batons and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to break through a police barricade to enter the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Led by their supreme head, Catholicos Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I, the protestors gathered from all over the state and assembled in front of the secretariat. In an emotional speech, Catholicos Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I claimed that the seminary rightfully belonged to his group and vowed they would oppose any move to wrest it from them. He also accused government officials and police of helping the rival faction to enter the disputed places including the seminary.

The Catholicos alleged that the move violated a Supreme Court order to maintain the status quo, which the government had agreed to ensure by not allowing either faction to enter the seminary's church.

Following the Catholicos' speech, the protestors marched to the Secretariat shouting slogans against the police and government but were blocked by the police about 50 meters from the main gate.

About this time, suddenly some protestors became violent and pelted stones, damaging government vehicles.

According to City Police Commissioner A. Padmakumar, the police had resorted to using batons and tear gas shells to disperse the mob. Ten police personnel were injured, he said.

According to Father Johnson Mulamootil, vicar of a Malankara church in the city, the police acted "without provocation."

Fr. Mulamootil and two other priests were injured in the police action.

The protestors also reportedly scuffled with some local media people, injuring some of the latter.

The State Home Minister, Balakrishnan Kodiyeri, has ordered a police probe into the incident.

The two factions are among seven Christian groups that trace their origin to St. Thomas the Apostle, who according to tradition, arrived in Kerala in 52 A.D. These groups, including two Catholic Oriental rites, are called St. Thomas Christians. The others are the Chaldean Syrian Church, Independent Syrian Church of Malabar and Mar Thoma Syrian Church.

The St. Thomas Christians all kept links with the church in Syria, which had supplied them with bishops, until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. Some St. Thomas Christians broke away in 1653 when the Portuguese missioners insisted they follow Roman liturgical traditions and abandon some local customs they had adopted.