Kerala Catholic Church temporarily relieves parish priest of duties after he joins BJP

After he joined the BJP in the Idukki district, the Catholic church in Kerala temporarily relieved a parish priest of his responsibilities.

The parish priest of St. Thomas Church in the village of Mankuva, Idukki, Fr. Kuriakose Mattam, on Monday joined the saffron party.

The priest has been temporarily relieved of his duties as the church's vicar, according to a statement made by the Syro-Malabar church to which he belongs.

The priest, who is getting close to 75, will retire in approximately four months after joining the party with minimal support in Kerala.

The clergyman declared he did not think the BJP was inappropriate to be a part of shortly after accepting the party's main membership.

"I don't think the BJP is a party that people shouldn't join. I'm here because I'm friendly with a number of BJP members. However, I have never joined a party before, he is heard stating in a video footage uploaded on Facebook by K.S. Aji, the BJP district president for Idukki.

Following the bloodshed in Manipur and attacks on Christians elsewhere, even a small portion of the community that flirted with the saffron party has started criticizing it. This is why a Catholic priest has joined the BJP.

An archbishop who had given the BJP a Lok Sabha seat in exchange for increased rubber prices has recently emerged as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most vocal detractor.

Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany of the Archdiocese of Thalassery had called the violence in Manipur "ethnic cleansing" and criticized Modi for traveling to the United States and speaking to the American Congress while the northeastern state was on fire just months after making the offer to the BJP, which has never won a Lok Sabha seat from Kerala.

The archbishop had encouraged Modi to embrace the people of Manipur in September, shortly after the G20 summit in Delhi, in the same way that he hugged foreign leaders like US President Joe Biden.