Catholic bishops unhappy with Cong. list

By Ignatius Pereira

KOLLAM, APRIL 5. The traditional bonhomie which the UDF in general and the Congress in particular enjoyed with the Catholic bishops of the State faces the threat of getting considerably eroded. The bishops by and large appear unhappy with the list of candidates announced by the Congress for the coming Assembly elections.

The Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram, Cyril Mar Baselius, as president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, is likely to issue a statement shortly expressing the resentment of the Catholic bishops.

It has been reliably understood that such a statement, in due consultation with the other Catholic bishops of the State, is under preparation at the Archbishop's House.

Bishops from various dioceses of the State had with considerable degree of hope requested the Congress leadership, both at the district and State levels, to consider only members from the Catholic community as candidates from some of the constituencies where they have a strong presence.

The bishops from Thrissur and Kollam districts were comparatively vociferous in this connection and their campaign to realise such a goal had found prominence in the media.

At Thrissur an informal political committee headed by the diocese Vicar General, Msgr. Joseph Kakkaserry, was constituted by the Bishop's House to pursue the matter. In Kollam district, the Kollam and Punalur bishops had strongly pursued the matter with the Congress leadership.

The Kollam Bishop, Dr. Joseph G. Fernandez, and the diocese unit of the Kerala Latin Catholic Association (KCLA), of which he is the patron, had championed for a Congress candidate from the Latin Catholic community at the Kundara constituency. A delegation from the Bishop's House here, led by a priest, had even met the senior Congress leader, Mr. K. Karunakaran, in this connection.

Similarly, the Bishop of Punalur, Dr. Mathias Kappil, and the diocese unit of the KCLA of which he is the patron, had written to the AICC general secretary, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Kollam DCC president, Mr. K.C. Rajan, and the senior Congress leader, Mr. Vayalar Ravi, calling upon the party to field a member from the Latin Catholic community as Congress candidate at Punalur.

The Punalur bishop had even attached the bio data of two prominent Congress leaders from the Latin Catholic community along with these letters.

The bishop houses at Punalur and Kollam are unhappy at the fact that apart from Punalur and Kollam, the UDF list of candidates for the 12 constituencies in the district does not contain even a Christian, leave alone a Catholic.

The Catholic bishops at large feel that the Congress had betrayed them when especially similar demands that some of the other communities which had put forth before the Congress leadership were entertained and explicitly met.

The general feeling among the Catholic bishops is that though the bishop houses had, as a tradition, always adopted a positive attitude towards the Congress, this was the first time they had openly espoused the cause of community members as Congress candidates at select constituencies.

The negative attitude of the Congress towards the cause raised by such a traditionally reliable section can compel the bishop houses to think in terms of having second thoughts on relationships with the Congress in the future, it was revealed to The Hindu by a spokesman of a bishop's house.

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