Kerala Catholics lap up Church fiat (Syro-Malabar told to have more kids!)

IBN Live ^ | 8/14/2006 | Naveen Nair

[markomalley]

Rani Joseph, a professor of economics at a local college, belongs to a typical middle-class Catholic Christian family in Kerala. How does Rani react to Cardinal Mar Varkey Vidayathil's call on Sunday to the Catholic community to have more babies?

Cardinal Mar Varkey Vidayathil, the archbishop of the Catholic Church in Kerala, has asked Catholic families to have more children because the population of Christians is declining. A market mentality is dominating relationships, the archbishop said, and the very future and sanctity of the family is in danger.

So affluent Christians must have more children, he said. This advice comes in a pastoral letter, read out in some 2,000 parishes on Sunday.

"What the Church said is relevant today. The Church is our mother and she has all rights to direct us. Especially, they can instruct us on certain issues," Dr Joseph says.

A comparison between Indian and European lifestyles are soon drawn. Rani feels that the Cardinal's call will help preserve family values.

"If you travel to European countries, one thing that touches you is that they don't have the concept of family. For them, children are also a burden. But coming to Kerala or the Indian context, we cherish the concept of family a lot," she adds.

[markomalley]

Note: Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil is the "major archbishop" of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. It's pedigree comes from the Patriarch of Antioch through the Chaldean Church. It's apostolic origins are traced back to St. Thomas the Apostle. (IIRC)

It's good to see that this church is also making attempts to counter the present-day contraceptive/abortive culture.

[markomalley]

Eastern Catholic ping?

[Maeve]

Their major archbishop and their Bishop Visitator in North America are great and shining lights of the Catholic Truth.

[Pyro7480]

Catholic ping!