Christians skeptical about religious census report; prepared for counter–measures

Kochi – The religious census report that was released recently and stated that Christian population was growing steadily, may have brought initial cheers among the minority community but lately, many Christians are starting to believe that this is a mere ‘eyewash’ and it will provoke unnecessary fear and tension among their non–Christian brothers.

In fact, the Christians have viewed their growth as ‘stagnant’ and have drawn the attention of their community to do something about it. Taking the 5.1 per cent rise in growth rate over the 1991 census as neither surprising nor relief–giving, the current 22.1 per cent growth has only spurred them to think more seriously and put the message across to the faithful more vigorously.

" The Church is very seriously and acutely concerned about the matter, especially in the drop of birth rates. There has been serious deliberations within the Church for sometime now," Fr. Paul Thelakkattu, the spokesman of Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference said.

The Major Archiepiscopal Assembly, taking place once in five years with representatives from the laity and the clergy among the Catholics, is scheduled to be held here in November this year and has selected 'Family' as its theme topic. The matter of decline in birth rates, especially with results of the present census, is bound to come up then, Church sources said.

Backed by the in–depth analysis about the past census, the Christian leadership views that their growth was static. According to the 1961 census, Christians constituted 2.4 per cent of the population and it rose to 2.6 per cent in 1971, dropped to 2.5 per cent in 1981 then further declined to 2.3 in 1991 and 2001 while Muslims grew from 10.7 per cent to 12.4 per cent during the period.

The growth rate, which dropped from 36 per cent in 1971 to 17 per cent in 1991, has now slightly resurged to 22.1 per cent.