KOCHI: While people are struggling to pay for basic needs like food and fuel, a church in Kerala has opened up its offering box to help the faithful, who have been highly inconvenienced by the government decision to demonetise high denomination currency notes.
The faithful, who arrived at St Martin Syro-Malabar Church at Thevakkal in Kochi on Sunday to attend the Holy Mass were taken by a pleasant surprise as the church opened up the offering box and asked them to take money to meet their daily needs. The people, who were exasperated as they had to wait in serpentine queues for cash, heaved a sign of relief as the church came to their rescue at the hour of need.
The faithful were allowed to take cash without signing any document or not even acknowledging the amount. “We didn’t know how much cash was there in the offering box till Sunday morning. Understanding their sufferings, we allowed the parishioners to collect the amount they need from the offerings on condition that they would re- deposit the amount as and when they get cash from banks.
I am sure that everyone will return the amount once they get money. They donated the money and we gave it back to them to tide over the crisis,” said parish priest Fr Jimmy Poochakatt, who is also the spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Church. “The response indicates how desperate they were due to shortage of small denomination currency notes” he added. “The box was emptied within minutes, but there were no takers for the old `500 and `1,000 notes,” said Fr Jimmy. “Many elderly people are alien to the new age banking practices like debit cards, Paytm and internet banking.
There are people who don’t even know how to withdraw money from the ATM. Communicating with the parishioners on Saturday, I could understand that they are hard hit by the shortage of small denomination currency notes. Many of them are struggling to meet their day-to-day expenses. This prompted us to open up the offerings box kept near altar. After consultation with the trustees on Saturday, we announced the decision during the Holy Mass,” he explained. “We could sense the relief on their faces. Most of the parish members are poor and they were hard hit by the cash crunch ,” said Selson Francis, a parish member