Thrissur, India, 18 May (ENI)--Church leaders in south India say the alleged involvement of a number of clerics in criminal activities shows corruption needs urgent attention in the church. "We are making wrong headlines. This is not how our leaders should be known," the Rev. Mohan Labeer, a pastor and former principal of Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, told ENInews on 14 May.

Labeer was reacting to the arrest of Church of South India Bishop Manikiam Dorai of Coimbatore a week earlier in connection with the assault on a priest of the diocese for joining a street protest by church members against alleged corruption by the bishop. The district court on 8 May ordered the arrest of Dorai, who has been on leave for two months from April after he failed to appear in court despite a court summons.

"Such embarrassing incidents show the urgent need for reforms in the church," noted Labeer, who completed two terms as the principal of the Tamil Nadu Theological College based at Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu state. "Our structures need to be more transparent without too much power being concentrated in one post," he noted.

When contacted by ENInews, Mani Philip, the Church of South India general secretary, said that the church had set up an inquiry team to probe the developments in Coimbatore and will act when the committee submits its report. Meanwhile in neighbouring Kerala state, the federal crime investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, on 7 May named the Rev. Verghese Thekkekara of the Jacobite faction of the Orthodox church as the prime accused in the 2002 murder of Malankara Verghese, who was hacked to death.

Varghese was a member of the managing committee of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian church while his assailants were alleged to be members of a rival faction, the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox church. The two groups have been involved in a bitter feud for decades. The Jacobite faction suspended the priest from church duties after he was named as the main accused in the sensational murder. However, in a 12 May statement it accused the rival Orthodox faction of discrediting it while reiterating that no priest of the church would be party to a murder conspiracy. [385 words]

[COURTESY TO ENI AS SOURCE]

Thrissur, India, 6 May (ENI)--Churches in India are responding to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy around the world by considering their own guidelines to deal with the issue. "Our message should be crystal clear, that churches will not tolerate anyone who is guilty," the Rev. Christopher Rajkumar, executive secretary of the National Council of Churches in India's commission for justice, peace and creation, told Ecumenical News International on 6 May.

The NCCI, which groups 30 Orthodox and Protestant churches, is taking to the June meeting of its executive committee, guidelines on dealing with sexual harassment that were set out in April at the general assembly in Kuala Lumpur of the Christian Conference of Asia. The guidelines in the CCA assembly handbook call for "accountability and procedures" to deal with incidents of sexual abuse or harassment in churches.

"The churches should have clear guidelines on sexual abuse," said Rajkumar, speaking from the NCCI headquarters at Nagpur in central India. In April, a Roman Catholic monk was arrested on a sodomy charge at an orphanage in central Madhya Pradesh state, while a priest in the southern state of Tamil Nadu is facing extradition to the United States over allegations of sexual abuse.

Earlier in 2009, a senior Orthodox priest in charge of running an orphanage in the Malappuram district of southern Kerala state was charged with the molestation and rape of two teenage sisters, one of whom subsequently committed suicide. Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India has sent its own draft guidelines on dealing with sexual abuse to the Vatican for approval.

The Rev. Babu Joseph, the CBCI's spokesperson, told ENI that the guidelines are, "comprehensive and will have a strong deterrent effect". The Indian Catholic bishops, he noted, have proposed reporting cases of sexual abuse to the police although the country's criminal laws do not make this mandatory. The guidelines were discussed at a 26-28 April meeting of the CBCI's standing committee. [337 words]

[COURTESY TO ENI AS SOURCE]