KOCHI : Days after the Idukki eparchy screened ‘The Kerala Story’, the youth movement of the Church has decided to screen the controversial movie in two more dioceses and an archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church.
The Kerala Catholic Youth Movement (KCYM) of the eparchies of Pala and Thamarassery and Thalassery archdiocese have decided to screen the movie for the youths in the parishes under their jurisdiction.
“The KCYM units of Thamarassery, Thalassery and Pala will screen the movie from April 13 onwards,” said Richald John, president of KCYM Thamarassery eparchy.
He said the call made by the Idukki eparchy has been taken up by other eparchies of the Church. “The screening will be held in Idukki once more. The earlier one was screened by the catechism department of the Church and hadn’t reached the youth in the eparchy,” said Richald.
On whether the KCYM’s decision has the backing of the eparchy higher-ups, Fr Sebastian Kavalakkat, chancellor of Thamarassery eparchy, said they have the wholehearted support of Church authorities.
“The KCYM unit of Thamarassery eparchy is spread across across Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. There is no political angle in the decision as is being misinterpreted by some political parties,” he said.
Richald said the screening will be held by the individual units of KCYM in the parishes. On the reason behind the screening, Richald said the theme of the film is very much relevant for the Church.
“We have been seeing ‘love jihad’ happening in our parishes. It should be noted that the ministry operating in the eparchy has identified 325 cases of religious conversions. We have only 120 parishes in Thamarassery eparchy. The number highlights the seriousness of the issue,” he said.
Akhil C Jose, president of KCYM, Thalassery archdiocese, said: “The film is available on OTT platform and many of us have even seen it. But when some political parties and others began criticising the Idukki eparchy’s decision to screen the movie as part of religious studies, we decided to follow suit in solidarity,” he said.
The Kerala Story: ‘Church to go ahead with awareness programmes’
According to Akhil, the Idukki eparchy had done nothing to vilify any other religion. “All it wanted was to make children aware of the pitfalls of love,” said Jose, adding that the screening of the film began on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the Thalassery archdiocese said it would neither support nor oppose the screenings being held by KCYM. He, however, said the issue raised by the film needs to be discussed.
Justifying the screening of ‘The Kerala Story’, the KCBC’s Commission for Social Harmony & Vigilance (KCBC Jagratha Commission), said it would continue to create awareness against “terrorism and pitfalls of love, which are some of the harsh realities of this age”.
“The Kerala Catholic church has been issuing regular cautionary instructions,” said Fr Michael Pulickal, secretary, of KCBC Jagratha Commission, in a statement.
He said though the misuse of the Special Marriage Act has been repeatedly pointed out to the government, no action has been taken. “No one should take affront to the Church leadership’s efforts to educate the faithful about the facts that the government agencies try to hide and the media often cover up,” he said.
He said the Church leadership and dioceses will proceed with the awareness activities aimed at removing the ignorance of society and preventing youth from falling into traps.
