A Catholic priest in Kerala has stood in as the father of the bride at a Hindu wedding, performing the Kanyadaan ritual and placing her hand in the groom’s. A video of the moment has gone viral.
Fr Roy Vadakkel, director of Bethlehem Ashramam in Vandanpathal, Kottayam district, performed the ritual at the wedding of Parvathi - a young woman who grew up in his orphanage and whom he fondly calls Sreekutty.
Parvathi was brought to the Bethlehem Ashramam in Mundakayam panchayat when she was barely a year old, after her mother passed away. Local residents brought her to the institution as the child had nobody to look after her. She lived there for 21 years.
After completing her schooling, Parvathi trained as a dialysis technician. When a marriage proposal came her way, she went to Fr Roy. He consulted her relatives and well-wishers, and since the groom, Ananthu, was a native of Kattappana in Idukki district and from the Hindu community, the wedding was arranged accordingly.
A Hindu priest conducted the rituals at St Paul’s Church parish hall in the village. The Ashramam provided everything needed for the occasion. When the Kanyadaan arrived, the ritual in which the bride is formally entrusted to the groom by her father, Fr Roy stepped forward.
“Since Fr Roy has been the only father Parvathi has known her entire life, he stepped in and completed the ritual. It was a big occasion for everyone,” a source at the Ashramam told the media.
Fr Roy, a native of Peruvanthanam in Idukki who also serves on the Orphanage Control Board, described it as the most satisfying and happiest day of his priesthood. He told the paper: “She is a child who grew up under my care. I know the importance of valuing human lives irrespective of their caste or religion. And I practice the same.”
He noted that he has conducted the weddings of more than 15 children raised in the Ashramam, but that all previous ceremonies had been Christian ones. This was the first Hindu wedding he participated in.
Ananthu tied the thali around Parvathi’s neck, completing the ceremony.
Fr Roy added that the Ashramam’s doors remain open to Parvathi. “Like how every woman comes to her parents’ house for her childbirth, if Parvathi decides to come to the Ashramam for her childbirth, she will be taken care of, as was the case with the other inmates of the orphanage,” he told The New Indian Express.
Bethlehem Ashramam is a care facility for marginalised women and children in Kerala’s Kottayam district.
