The laity and clergy stepped up their offensive against the CPM on Monday following the hue and cry over the remarks of  party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan against a senior bishop. 

 Vijayan had called Bishop Mar Paul Chitilappally, head of the Thamarassery diocese in Kozhikode, a “wretched creature’’  for allegedly spreading lies and trying to ‘wrongly’ portray a former MLA as a religious person. 
Communists are generally known to be atheists and those who do not follow religious traditions. Mathai Chacko, the legislator who represented Thiruvambady in Kozhikode, had died of  leukemia a year ago at a hospital in Kochi.  Vijayan said the bishop had lied by claiming that Chacko had  ‘consciously’ sought ‘anointing of  the sick,’ a prayer offered as the last rites of a dying Christian. 

“Chacko had lived and died as a model Communist and to portray him as not being so is an insult to the man,’’ Vijayan said. Though Bishop Chittilappally clarified that Chacko had indeed not sought the prayer consciously, the harsh words Vijayan used against the revered bishop has infuriated various church denominations. The Thamarassery church has called for a protest shutdown of  all its institutions on Wednesday. “Chacko may have lived a noble life of  a Communist but Vijayan may not have known his religious leanings,’’ said a priest. There were also reports that Chacko did register his marriage in the Church registry and also got his son baptised. 

The Latin Catholic Church has also registered its protest. “I  thought Communists were changing the world over. But this statement shows that the CPM  here is not,’’ said Trivandrum Archbishop Susaipakyam. The DYFI, the CPM’s youth organisation, has come out in support of Vijayan. Federation general secretary Sreeramakrishnan said the fact that the bishop had climbed down from his earlier statement showed that he was at fault.