CM's intervention sought in appointment of Kannada bishops

The Kannada Christians have urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to immediately intervene in the appointment of Kannadiga Bishops to dioceses in Karnataka to end the “religious exploitation” of Kannada Christs.

Raphael Raj, General Secretary, All Karnataka Catholic Christians Kannada Association, told reporters here on Monday that the exploitation of Kannada Christians had been going on unabated and efforts to put an end to it had failed.

Time was ripe for political intervention to end the exploitation. Raj said that barring the Chikmagalur diocese, the 13 other dioceses had non-Kannada bishops.

He alleged that these bishops were acting against the interests of Kannada Christians. All the three dioceses of the Church of South India (CSI) were headed by non-Kannada bishops.

Raj urged the chief minister to write a letter to Pope Francis and the Moderator of the CSI, Chennai, urging them to appoint only Kannada Christians as bishops of dioceses in Karnataka.

He said that the indefinite dharna opposing the appointment of a Tamil bishop to the Karnataka Central Province by the CSI had been going on for the past two months.

Complaining that Kannada Christians have been left in the lurch as they don’t have even reasonable political representation, Raj wanted the government to nominate a member of the Kannada Christians to the Legislative Assembly and Council.

He said although the previous BJP government had earmarked Rs 50 crore for the development of Christians in 2012, only Rs 33 crore had been spent and the rest Rs 17 crore lapsed. For the current year, the allocation has been increased to 100 crore.