KOCHI: The controversy over the Church authorities’ refusal to grant the last wish of Madhu Jyotsna Akhouri, formerly Mary John-- maternal grandmother of Bollywood queen Priyanka Chopra-- that she be buried at St John’s Jacobite Church, Attamangalam, where she had been baptised, further snowballed with Jacobite Almaya Forum approaching the court seeking legal action against those behind the decision.
And a petition was filed in the Munsif Court, Kolencherry, against Jacobite Church regional head Catholicos Baselios Thomas I and Fr Simon Manuel, parish priest of Attamangalam Church. “The Church membership and parish membership cannot be differentiated,There was no proof that Mary John gave up her faith till death. It was her wish to be buried at the cemetery in her home parish. The membership of the Church had been established with the burial at a Jacobite Church, though, not in her home parish. Catholicos, parish priest and Mary John are part of the Church body. One part cannot say that the other is not needed,’’ it said. Mary John’s family members have also come out in support of the legal challenge mounted by the Forum.
‘’We support the legal proceedings. It was a painful incident. We knocked at every door seeking permission for the burial. The burial would not have been possible even at Ponkunnam Church, but for the intervention of Metropolitan Thomas Mar Themotheos,’’ said Elias Kavalappara, paternal cousin of Mary John. The family now has plans to exhume the remains of Mary John from Ponkunnam Church cemetery and rebury them at Attamangalam Church, if there were a favourable order.
Earlier, the decision by St John Attamangalam Church authorities had sparked a controversy. The Church authorities denied permission for the burial on the grounds that Mary John failed to renew her Church membership.They also pointed out that Mary’s marriage to a Hindu-- she had been wife of, the late, Congress stalwart from Bihar, Dr Manohar Kishan Akhouri-- didn’t permit them to allow the burial in her home parish.However, the second charge was subsequently dropped when the family informed the Church that Mary had indeed been a practising Christian despite marrying outside her community.