KERALA (UCAN): The Global Knanaya Reform Movement [GKRM], a lay Catholic group in India has petitioned the Vatican seeking a probe into the Easter rite Archdiocese of Kottayam in Kerala, for denying the sacrament of marriage to a couple on the basis of the centuries-old practice of endogamy—prohibiting marriage outside the diocese to maintain the purity of its Knanaya community.
A complaint to Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the apostolic nuncio to India, said the archdiocese denied the mandatory no-objection letter to one of its members, Justin John, and denied him the sacrament of marriage.
“We have a court order in our support” which has asked the archdiocese to end this practice, said Biju Uthup, one of the signatories of the complaint, on June 13.
“But still we want the intervention of the Vatican to end this un-Christian practice permanently” because the archdiocese has appealed against the order in a higher court.
“The nunciature has promised to update us,” he said.
The lay group narrated the ordeal John had to face on account of his parish priest’s refusal to grant him a no-objection letter.
The marriage of John and Vijimol Shaji, a member of the Syro-Malabar Tellicherry archdiocese, was scheduled for May 18.
The couple, however, were denied a Church marriage after John’s parish priest refused to issue the mandatory no-objection letter despite the priest promising to personally hand it over to the parish priest of the bride.
Their engagement was held on April 17 without any hurdles as his parish priest on April 15 issued the permission.
The couple, however, were denied a Church marriage after John’s parish priest refused to issue the mandatory no-objection letter despite the priest promising to personally hand it over to the parish priest of the bride.
The couple held a symbolic customary marriage, garlanding each other, in front of St. Francis Xavier’s Church in Kerala in the presence of some 1,000 guests.
The lay group accused John’s parish priest Father Sijo Stephan of creating trouble for the couple.
The archdiocese, under the eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church, used to excommunicate those marrying from other dioceses.
The Knanaya community claims to be descendants of the fourth-century Jewish-Christian trader Thomas of Kana, who came to the Kerala coast with some 70 families. They reportedly follow endogamy to maintain the “purity of their blood.”
A civil court in India declared it illegal on 30 April 2021, after three decades of protracted legal battles.
The Vatican has on several occasions termed endogamy as an un-Christian practice.
In 1986, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches opposed the move to introduce endogamy when a special ministry was established in Chicago for the migrant Knanaya Catholics.
The practice continued despite the Vatican’s instructions against it.
