Syro Malabar Church unease over less priests, nuns

Scarcity of priests and nuns is deeply worrying the Syro Malabar Church in Kerala.

Archbishop George Alancherry on Sunday expressed concern over the decline in the number of young people joining the religious way of life.

In a pastoral letter read out in all Syro Malabar churches, Archbishop Alancherry said the church was facing "great challenges" and most important of them all was the "unwillingness" of the faithful to enter priesthood and nunnery.

This was his first pastoral letter since he succeeded Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil as the Major Archbishop on May 26. The letter was in connection with the memory of Saint Thomas' Martyrdom at Mylapore in Chennai on July 3, AD 72.

The apostle St Thomas is believed to have landed in Kodungallur in 52 AD. Till his death, he went on preaching the Gospel and establishing churches.

On the decline of faithful taking religious vocations, Alancherry said lack of proper faith in God and absence of prayer-oriented life very much contributed to it.

Other reasons, he said could be due to modern families opting for less number of children and criticism about activities of missionaries.

Alanchery called for earnest steps to stem the situation by encouraging missionaries. In view of this, the Syro Malabar Church has decided to observe 'Mission year' from this August to next year 2012.

The inauguration of the Mission Year, according to the Press Trust of India, would be held on August 21, at Mar Thomas Pilgrim Centre at Azhikode near Kodungalloor.

A majority of the people joining as nuns and priests come from Kerala. The Catholic Church last year said it was planning to conduct a study of nuns and priests after it observed that there was 30-40 percent decline in the number of girls opting to be nuns.

Currently, there are more than 45,000 nuns and 13,000 priests in the Catholic Church.