Government urged fo monitor Christian bodies

CHENNAI: A Catholic forum in the city has urged Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to set up a government body to monitor the functioning of Christian institutions. Leonard Vasanth, executive committee member of the Federation of the Catholic Faithful, said on Wednesday: “When Amma was Chief Minister for the first time, she set up the Wakf Board for Muslims. She said that if Christians were to ask for a similar body she would certainly take steps. Now we are asking for it.” However, it could not be independently confirmed if Jayalalithaa had made such a promise. The group, a conglomerate of various Catholic Associations gathered to reiterate the issue of alleged irregularities in the administration like allegations of land fraud, missing school revenue and manipulation of church staff placements by the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore.According to the forum, the administration of churches was vested upon priests and members of a hold order and if the governmental body is set up, there won’t be any need to hand over its reins to religious leaders again.General secretary of the federation, Climent Selvaraj, said, “The fact that the administration of the church is in their (priests’) hands is not desirable. Why should a regulatory body be managed by them? Any individual belonging to the Christian fraternity should be allowed to run the administration.” “The two existing bodies (State Commission for Minority Welfare and the Minority Economic Development Commission) have literally done nothing for Christians and Catholics” Leonard said.He claimed that the appointment of Father Vincent Chinnadurai, who is part of SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication), to head the State Minority Rights and Welfare Commission, did not benefit the Catholic community.The group further alleged that the Minority Economic Development Commission did not take enough steps to check the accounts or question the administration of the Catholic Archdiocese.Leonard further said, “We have to make it very clear to the public as well as to politicians. No Christian vote can be influenced by any Bishop, priest or leader.” He conceded that Kanyakumari was the only district where such influence had a reasonable amount of sway over peoples’ voting preferences. “Politicians should not be lulled into thinking that they have Christian votes with them just because a Bishop pledges support,” he said.General Secretary Selvaraj presented a letter that they had sent to the previous government, cautioning them against awarding government contracts to Father Jegath Gasper Raj, whose organisation ‘Tamil Maiyam’ was raided by the CBI in connection with the spectrum scam.