KOTTAYAM: The betrothal of Justin John and Vijimol, held at Kottody St Xavier’s Church, in Kasaragod, on Monday, marked a new chapter in the history of the Knanaya Catholic Church and the archeparchy of Kottayam. In the more than a century-old history of the archeparchy, 31-year-old Justin became the first person to be engaged to a woman outside the eparchy, while retaining his church membership.
The ceremony, held with the permission of the archeparchy, and based on the directive of the Kerala High Court, is considered a major development in the more than three-decade-long legal battle to end the practice of endogamy in the Knanaya Catholic Church. Citing ‘purity of blood’, it had hitherto refused to acknowledge marriage with other Roman Catholic community members. Those wishing to wed outside the Knanaya community were forced to apply for a ‘permission to leave eparchy of Kottayam’ (PLEK).
The Knanaya Catholics trace their origin to the Jewish-Christian community that migrated from southern Mesopotamia to the Malabar coast of Kodungallur in AD 345 under the leadership of enterprising merchant Thomas of Cana, aka Knai Thomman. The original community was believed to have consisted of over 400 people belonging to 72 families of seven clans. Keeping their tradition and culture, they formed an endogamous community.
The Kottayam archeparchy was formed on August 29, 1911, through a papal bull for the community to maintain its ethnic identity. Being the only archdiocese for Knanaya members, the archeparchy strictly implemented endogamy. The practice was first challenged by Biju Uthup in 1989 when the Church refused permission for his marriage under its parishes on the basis that his grandmother was not a member of the Knanaya Church. The case is still pending in court.
Later, more voices emerged against the practice of endogamy, which gave rise to the Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithi (KCNS), to push for reformation.
On the basis of a petition filed by KCNS, on April 30, 2021, the Additional Sub-Court in Kottayam issued a decree of permanent injunction prohibiting termination of the membership of any person of the Kottayam archeparchy for marrying a Catholic from any other diocese. After an appeal was dismissed by the district court, the metropolitan archbishop and the archeparchy approached the HC seeking an injunction. A single bench of Justice M R Anitha on March 10 declined to stay the lower court order but agreed to hear the archbishop’s concerns.
The HC said an earlier interim arrangement, which was made in the HC, will continue till the final disposal of the appeal. As per this, ‘If any member of a church under the Kottayam archeparchy wishes to marry a Catholic from another diocese, he/she can make a request to the archbishop or the archeparchy for issuance of ‘vivaha kuri’ or no-objection certificate. On receipt of the request, archeparchy should issue the vivaha kuri or no-objection certificate, without insisting on any letter of relinquishment of that person’s membership with the Kottayam archeparchy.’ This forced the archeparchy to issue the vivaha kuri to Justin on April 14, three days before his betrothal.