Malankara Church starts social center in Delhi

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis laid the foundation stone of a social service center.

By Bijay Kumar Minj
New Delhi:  Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, the first Cardinal of the Syro-Malankara Church, on Sunday laid the foundation stone for his Oriental Church's first social service center in Jasola, New Delhi.

“Let this center be the sign of love of Christ where all are welcome, even the least of people,” said the Catholicos, the head of the youngest of Oriental Churches.

The center named Prachodana (inspiration) is designed to house an NGO leading the social services that the Church initiated in 2009 in the national capital territory and nearby areas.

The service, joined with the "Food for the Hungry" program, helps people without discrimination of caste, creed, community, religion and gender, Cardinal Cleemis told ucanindia.in.

Currently it provides hundreds of food packets daily to poor people living in streets, slums, orphanages, rehabilitation centers and even patients in hospitals, who cannot afford even one meal a day, the youngest cardinal said. The church members fund the programs.

The 53-year cardinal, major archbishop of Syro-Malankara church, was in New Delhi for a two-day visit. The Oriental Church organized a function to felicitate the leader who was made a cardinal last November.

Some 3,000 people and several dignitaries from the Church and politics joined it.

Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio at the function lauded the simplicity, humility and spirituality" of the leader, saying such qualities will help him lead the Church to growth in the Catholic Church in India.

The Church had only less than 10 members when it joined Catholic fold in 1930, but has some 500,000 Catholics now, mainly in Kerala state, southern India.

“In him we have found an able and zealous missionary here,” the nuncio said.

Parliamentarian P J Kurien said the Cardinal is considered a people's bishop due to his simple and approachable nature. The acceptance he has among leaders of other religions will help in nation building, the politician said.