INDIA Jharkhand Bishop Suspends Priest For Contesting Assembly Election

Posted: 14th February 2005

SHIKARIPARA, India (UCAN): A Catholic bishop in eastern India has suspended a priest for refusing to withdraw as a candidate in a legislative election.
Father Albinus Murmu is one of the three leading contenders to represent Shikaripara in the Jharkhand state assembly. The 35-year-old Santal tribal priest is a candidate for a regional party.

Jharkhand's three-phased election began Feb. 3. Voters in Shikaripara, some 1,350 kilometers southeast of New Delhi, go to the polls on Feb. 23.
"Yes, I have suspended him," Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka told UCA News by phone on Feb. 10.

Two days earlier, Bishop Marandi ordered Father Murmu to withdraw his candidacy or face the suspension of his priestly faculties. The prelate also met the priest in an attempt to convince him to withdraw from party politics. "But he did not withdraw his nomination. Ultimately I had to suspend him," Bishop Marandi explained.

Father Murmu spoke with UCA News on Feb. 8, while he was campaigning in Shikaripara. He refused to comment on his suspension but said he was determined to contest the election.
"No looking back. People requested me to contest the Shikaripara seat to serve them better. I have chosen politics to serve my people in a more effective way," the suspended priest told UCA News.

Church sources say Bishop Marandi had sought the advice of Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, before acting against Father Murmu. Dumka diocese is in the ecclesiastical province headed by Ranchi archdiocese.
Speaking with UCA News in Ranchi, the Jharkhand state capital, some 300 kilometers south of Shikaripara, Cardinal Toppo justified the suspension.

The cardinal maintained that canon law asks for the "immediate suspension" of priests contesting elections. "It is a matter of disobedience," he said, and "Bishop Marandi had enough grounds to suspend Father Murmu" for defying him.

However, Cardinal Toppo clarified that the Church has no authority to take the priesthood away from a person. "Murmu can opt out of the Church and its duties on his own, though in that case he would have to apply in writing," he explained. Until such a time, his suspension would remain indefinitely if he chooses to remain a candidate for elections.

Canon 287 of the Code of Canon Law says clerics "are not to play an active role in political parties or in directing trade unions unless, in the judgment of the competent ecclesiastical authority, this is required for the defense of the rights of the Church or to promote common good."

According to canon 290, a priest can lose the clerical state only through an ecclesiastical decree declaring his ordination invalid.

Some local people say the priest enjoys much support in the area. "Father Albinus Murmu is widely accepted as a good social leader in rural areas of Dumka," Mohan Marandi, a registered voter from Shikaripara, told UCA News. He is not related to Bishop Marandi.

Father Murmu's case is not isolated. In 1977, Jesuit Father Anthony Murmu (no relation), another Santal priest, won a parliamentary seat from Dumka. He resigned from the priesthood.

Six years later, Father P.J. Jacob of Belgaum diocese won assembly elections in Karnataka state, southern India. However, his bishop did not suspend him.

Article Source: UCANEWS