Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Catholic Church in Kerala has called upon its followers to have more babies, if they are economically well off.
The advice comes in a pastoral letter, read out in some 2,000 parishes on Sunday. Now, what prompted this move is the reportedly sharp decline in the community's size.
The pastoral letter written by Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil tells Christians to have more children, in order to save the reportedly dwindling community. According to Cardinal Vithayathil of the Syro-Malabar Church, abortion and preference for small families are the major reasons for the decline in the Christian population.
Syro-Malabar Church Archbishop Mar Varkey Vithayathil says, “We feel that there is lot of selfishness growing in families. There is a pro-death mentality, a mentality against life.”
In pursuit of their selfish joys, even those who can afford to bring up children don't want them. Those who have the means should come forward to have more children. The impact of market mentality on human relationship is visible in all levels of society.
The Cardinal feels there is no reason to worry about increasing population, and the state should not try to restrict the family size.
“The state has no right to tell couples how many children they should have nor the church has the right to tell them. Its the couple themselves who have to decided how many children they should have in a responsible way,” says Vithayathil.
The Christian community is powerful in the state and contributes to 20 per cent of the vote bank. Not surprisingly, there is a huge political angle to the Bishop's call and Church goers are aware of it.
A Church goer Mathew C Jose says, “After demarcation constituencies in Christian dominated Central Travancore merged while North Malabar got more constituencies because of increase in population.”
When RSS Chief KS Sudarshan had called upon Hindus to have at least three children, last year, it lead to a huge uproar across the country. Cardinal Vithayathil's statements is also likely to spark off a debate.
With inputs from R Raghuraj in Ernakulam
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