Church shows disrespect to two Dalit youth

Its General Secretary,Joy Paul Pudussery,said in a statement here that the dalit Catholic youth,M M Rajan had died on Jan 10 and his relatives were ‘compelled’ to keep the body for 10 days at the mortuary as the church authorities did not show readiness to bury the body in the Church’s cemetery by performing religious rites.

The church had refused to perform the last rites as he did not attend sunday mass and had not receivied Holy communion,he said.

Pudussery demanded compensation for the mental stress by the deceased’s kin following disrespect shown to the body,from the Church. Showing disrespect to the body was a a criminal offence,he said.

He also demanded a probe into the reason for burying the body of one Biju from nearby Kaacheri under the Catholic Archdiocese here,at the Lalur public crematorum in July last year. Biju had died on July 11,last at nearby Kaacheri and the vicar of the Catholic Church allegedly refused to permit a church burial as his name did not figure in the family card.