Two Hundred Priests Start Hunger Strike Against Cardinal

Nearly 200 priests of the Syro-Malabar Ernakulam Archdiocese in Kerala, India, began on Thursday an indefinite hunger strike at the house of Cardinal George Alencherry, demanding his resignation.

Alencherry, 74, is the Major Metropolitan Archbishop of the Syro Malabar Church and Ernakulam-Angamaly Archbishop. He was involved in a 2015 dubious land deal that led to a 10 million dollars loss for the archdiocese.

Troubles for Alencherry began in November 2017 after some of his priests accused him of being involved in the shady deal.

The Vatican temporary suspended Alencherry in June 2018 in order to probe the allegations. Then, Alencherry was returned to his position without a clarification of the allegations against him.

A vast majority of his parish priests (306 of 336) refused to read out a July 14 circular in which Alencherry asked to bury the differences.

Bongaigaon Bishop Thomas Pulloppillil told UCANews.com that the "current divisions could have been avoided with a bit of sensitivity and farsightedness on the part of those who made the decisions."

Picture: George Alencherry © wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsLmujtzdoci