If Trump is not Christian Is Kottayam Archbishop a Christian?

National Coordinator, KANA USA asks 

By Alex Kavumpurath, National Coordinator, KANA

(Alex Estapan Kavumpurath is the National Coordinator, KANA, USA. He has  sent this letter to CCV in the context of building Pure Blood  marriage wall barring entry to non-knanaya people to Kottayam diocese in spite of advise from friends, attacks from critics and orders from Vatican. So he asks if Donald Trump is not a Christian according to Pope Francis, how can Archbishop Mar Moolekatt of Kottayam be a Christian. Knanaites like Ku Klux Klan? His letter follows. james kottoor, editor). 

 "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel," Pope Francis told journalists who asked his opinion on Trump's proposals to halt illegal immigration. However, hate groups like KKK love Trump’s policies. “Voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage,” said David Duke, the former Klansman, addressing to Whites. David Duke was a grand wizard of the hate group, Ku Klux Klan.   

If Trump is not a Christian, then David Duke is definitely not a Christian since his policies are much more hateful than Trump’s. Based on the standard applied by the Pope, both men are not Christians as their policies are against the gospel, although they attend church and receive holy communion regularly.   

Now the question is, if an archbishop imposes policies and practices like Trump and Duke, is he a Christian, especially if his policies are closer to Duke?  Mar Moolakkatt of Kottayam is an archbishop who has such policies.  He never admits to his diocese anybody from outside his group. He insists for endogamous marriages in his diocese to preserve ethnic purity of his group.  If a member of his diocese marries outside his group, the member and his family are being excluded from his diocese and the group. He will not allow their marriage in any of the churches in his diocese. He forces members of his diocese who want to marry outside his group to sign documents to show that they leave voluntarily. Even adopted children are not included in his group. 

When Rome banned to bring this practice to America in 1986, he refused to obey the Church, though pretended to follow it. Finally, in 2014, instead of obeying the rescript of the church issued in 1986, he invented a new formula to circumvent the rescript and to continue his policies in America. Under this new formula the husband and wife cannot be in his church in America as one family, if one of them is not from his group. Using pressure tactics by him and his group, he got the Chicago Syro-Malabar bishop to issue a pastoral letter in accordance with this new formula.  Parents of adopted children are not even allowed to bring their adopted children to his group’s (KCCNA) next convention and this policy has the approval of the archbishop. When a non-endogamous family sued his diocese for admission, his diocese engaged in a court battle that lasted more than 20 years. Even though the courts ruled in favor of the family, he still refuses to comply with the court decisions, and to admit the family members in his diocese in Kerala and churches in America.   

When others criticized Trump he denounced David Duke and was ready to modify his policies.  But Mar Moolakkatt is not ready to change his policies. He and his group still insist to continue the policy of forced exclusion of non-endogamous families and adopted children to maintain ethnic purity of his group.   

When Trump has been making hateful speeches, even Republican party leaders were willing to criticize and denounce Trump, but Syro-Malabar hierarchy, including Mar Alencherry and Mar Angadiath are facilitating Mar Moolakkatt to continue his hateful policies and practices.  Even the Pope’s Congregations do not appear to have taken enough steps to end this unchristian practice in the church.  It is unconscionable that they allow such anti-gospel practices in the church in the name of custom and tradition.

So, it appears that the tittle “Grand Wizard” is fit for Mar Moolakkatt. It is an appropriate one for him until he denounces the “KKK policies” of his group. Conversion can happen at any moment, if the mind is open to change!