By our Religious Correspondent
Kottayam, June 25 (IVC) A faithful suffered head injury following a clash in Mor Ignatius Knanaya Church at Kurichy near here on June 23 when a group of devotees attempted to interrupt the Holy Mass by Kuriakose Mar Severios Metropolitan.
Severios as the “archbishop and chief Metropolitan of the Knanaya Archdiocese in India” was suspended by the Patriarch of Antioch recently for disobedience to his orders.
However , the Kottayam Munsiff Court has stayed Patriarch’s decree of suspension. The Knanaya Association, the highest decision-making body of Archdiocese too did not approve of the arbitrary action of the Patriarch.
The episode began to unfold when the suspended Metropolitan Severios arried at the Church in the morning of June 23 with an intention of saying the Mass with the strength of the court’s stay order.
Some faithful, when saw him, started raising slogans against the Metropolitan and others tried to oppose them which resulted in a fisticuff. In the fight, one faithful , identified as Rijo Karimbannoor (46 years) suffered head injury, police said, he was admitted to the Government Medical College hospital here.
The Prsident of the Knanaya Assocition , T O Abraham said that the Metropolitan had been invited to the parish by the Managing Committee. The Archdiocese was witnessing a factional bickering following the suspension of Severios Metropotan as the “Archbishop and Chief Metropolitan of the Knanaya Archdiocese in India”.
