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Knanaya Catholic Racism
Knanaya Catholic Racism, in present times, is defined as the practice of denial of the sacrament of marriage and other sacraments along with denial of membership in parishes of Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam of the Syro-Malabar Church in India for marriage of a Knanaya member of Kottayam diocese to a non Knanaya spouse who is not a member of Kottayam Diocese. In addition to denial of membership and sacraments, Kottayam Diocese also does not give equal status to members of Kottayam Diocese who marry spouses who are not members of Kottayam Diocese. The children born out of this wedlock are not given membership in Kottayam diocese or equal status with children born out of both Knanaya parents from the Diocese.

This practice of discrimination is defined by many victims of the Diocese as Knanaya racism and is termed by the Diocese as the practice of customs and traditions in the name of blood purity. The authorities of the Diocese claim that they have been continuing this practice of endogamy followed by the Jewish community as directed by Prophet Ezra and Prophet Nehemiah of the Old Testament to justify the continuation of these discriminatory practices. However the victims of Knanaya racism argue that the Book or Ruth rejects and contests the idea of the issue of intermarriages and state that Ruth who was a foreigner and a non Jew was made equivalent to the category of a Matriarchs of Israel and a mother in Israel. Further they claim that Ezra did not do anything about Jewish women who married foreign men and did not end nor was there any sort of discrimination for such mixed marriages.

They further argue that the Papal Bull for the creation of the Diocese in 1911 by Pope Pius was mainly exclusively for the Southist Christians presently claimed to be known as Knanaya community. Though the Papal bull do not specifically mention that the Diocese was created specifically for the continued practice of endogamy, the present ecclesiastical authorities of the diocese use this Papal bull as a means for the continuation of the racial discrimination through the institution of the Syro-Malabar Church of Roman Catholic church. To date this is the only known formal practice of racism in the Roman Catholic which is camouflaged by Kottayam Diocese as the continued practice of customs and traditions of the ancient Jewish community in modern day Catholic churches.

Court Verdicts
Recently the Kottayam district sub-court in Kerala, India has decreed a judgment  on 30th April 2021, to give equal status to Knanaya men who marry non Knanaya spouses with those who marry Knanaya spouses. In the judgment which was published in local and National news    that the court observed the following; "So, it can be easily concluded that the alleged practice of endogamy by Kottayam arch eparchy is in violation of the right to marriage enshrined in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which can be simultaneously recognized as a common law right and a fundamental right. The forfeiture of membership in the Kottayam arch eparchy for violating endogamy is a violation of the right guaranteed under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution",  the court observed. Further the court also held that the endogamy practice of Kottayam Diocese is in violation of the New Testament, Oriental Canon law articles of the Universal Catholic Church and a human rights violation.

The Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam has rejected the findings of the above court verdict and has appealed to higher courts to reverse the order. It is expected that this legal fight on the issue of Knanaya racism in Roman Catholic Church will continue all the way till final verdict is decreed by the Supreme Court of India.

Vatican on Knanaya Racism
In general the Catholic church is silent about the existence of Knanaya racism in Catholic church just as they were silent about the rampant child sex abuse that was going on in the Catholic church. Vatican was first brought to the notice of Knanaya racism, in the early 1980s when this issue was becoming a problem within the Knanaya diaspora community in USA in Chicago by Knanaya Association of North America(KANA). KANA send a petition on this evil practice of endogamy and expulsion in the Syro-Malabar churches in Chicago, to the congregation of Oriental Churches in Vatican. This resulted in the Congregation of Orientals Churches to issue a rescript in 1986 after detailed study of this burning issue in the Knanaya community in Chicago. In the rescript, the prefect of Congregation of Oriental Churches clearly stated that practice of endogamy and denial of membership in catholic churches based endogamy is strictly to be prohibited and such practices prevalent in India is not to be exported from India to USA.

In India, however Knanaya community was not that progressive and summitted obediently to the practices of endogamy and expulsion of Kottayam diocese for marrying spouses from outside the community. It was only in 1989 that this practice of expulsion based on Knanaya racism was questioned by a legal suit filed by Biju Uthup when his marriage was denied to be conducted by the Diocese as his Grand mother was found a Latin Christian and not from the Knanaya community. Biju Uthup filed a civil suit against the Bishop of Kottayam Mar Kuriakose Kunnessry and demanded his rights to get married in Kottayam diocese as he and his fiancée were Knanaya members of Kottayam diocese. He won the case in 1991 and was finally married his fiancée with the intervention of the Apostolic Pro Nuncio without renouncing his or his fiancée's  membership from Kottayam diocese. This civil suite against Kottayam diocese was the beginning of the organized fight by the victims of Knanaya racism in India which is narrated in detail in the book published by ORCHART and KCNS in 2014. Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithy (KCNS) was formally registered as a society in Kottayam, India in the year 1991 to fight Knanaya racism in India and for complete eradication in Catholic churches in India after the denial of membership to Biju Uthup in 1989.

Vatican has been repeatedly reminded by KCNS, Victims of Knanaya racism in India and KANA from USA about Knanaya racism and expulsion practice of Kottayam diocese who hide the existence of such expulsion by camouflaging it as voluntary transfer of the victims of Knanaya racism. Representations and answers to questionnaire of the Family Synod 2015 & the Lineamenta Document were send on this Knanaya burning issue by ORCHART & KCNS to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, of The Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in October 2014 & final Synod on the Family, in October 2015. Due to these petitions and memorandums, the Dicastery of Congregation for the Oriental Churches has created a file on this burning issue of endogamy practices and expulsion by Kottayam diocese in India and the Syro-Malabar church in USA. Finally the Holy See appointed a one man commission, Bishop Michael Mulhall after the conclusion of the Family Synod in 2015 to independently study the burning issue of the Knanaya endogamy practices by visiting and interacting with the Knanaya community all over the world and in India. During one of the visits to Kerala, a few executive committee members of KCNS and Biju Uthup a victim of Knanaya racism were summoned for a discussion with Bishop Michael Mulhall appointed by the Holy See. Bishop Michael Mulhall finally summited his report on Knanaya community issues after three visits to India, meeting all the Bishops of Kottayam and Malabar region and all places having concentration of Knanaya community and seeking a solution to resolve the problem from all whom he met.

Based on the one man commission report summited by Bishop Michael Mulhall l to the Holy See,  Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches wrote Vatican's directives on the issue in a letter dated 17th December, 2017 to Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath, of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago with  copy of the same to Archbishop of the Catholics of Kottayam Archeparchy. The directive stated Vatican's position that  denial of membership in churches belonging to Kottayam diocese and those Syro-Malabar Churches  in USA claimed to be Knanaya churches purely for the sake of the practice of endogamy is not tolerated by Vatican. This Vatican position of not tolerating the exclusion of non Knanaya members from the claimed Knanaya parishes in USA  was not welcomed by Archbishop of Kottayam and the Knanaya racist all over the world. Some fanatic Knanaya racists even threatened to burn photos of Bishop Michael Mulhall. The Vatican position by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri did not touch upon the Knanaya situation in India but stressed that they are tolerating the Knanaya endogamy practices of Kottayam Archdiocese in Kerala. Based on the uproar and unrest caused by the Knanaya fanatic racist all over the world, Kottayam Archbishop quickly took up the issue at the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church and took an appointment for a delegation of members lead by Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt to meet Cardinal Sandri, the prefect of Congregation of Oriental churches. The sole purpose of the delegation was for amending the directive of cardinal Sandri thought to be damaging to Knanaya racists and Archbishop Mar Mathew Moolakkatt. During the meeting of a 5 member delegation including lay Knanaya men who met Cardinal Sandri in February 2018, Cardinal Sandri advised the delegation to be Christians first and then consider everything else later. He finally agreed to make minor modifications to the letter which was later reissued by secretary  Archbishop Cyril Vasil dated 2nd  March, 2018. This minor modification of the letter pacified the Knanaya racists all over the world and but did not give a final solution or answer the petitions and memorandums filed by KCNS and victims of Knanaya Racism in India. This according to legal experts could be possibly due to the  civil cases going on as per law of the land in India. The list of all ongoing cases and ongoing verdicts are published in the website of Global Knanaya Reform Movement dedicated to eradicating Knanaya Racism in Roman Catholic church through their social media campaigns. This Global Knanaya reform movement GKRM s also collecting digital signatures for an online petition to the Holy See to put an end to Knanaya racism within the Syro-Malabar church of the Universal Catholic Church.

Scientific Angle
The fundamental basis on which the Knanaya community and Kottayam diocese claim to practice endogamy, exclusion, expulsion and Knanaya racism is their believe that all Knanaya people are a pure community having being born only from Knanaya parents. They believe that they have descended from the Jewish ancestors who migrated to Malabar coast under the leadership of the merchant Thomas of Cana who sailed in a ship from Mesopotamia to Malabar coast in India in AD 345. It is believed that this community never married anyone from outside their community to keep their Jewish blood purity intact based on the teachings and directives of their Jewish ancestors and Thomas of Cana. The texts quoted for this believe from the old testaments are referenced to teachings of Prophet Ezra, Nehemaia and Tobit, where marriages to foreign wives were prohibited and insisted that they marry only from within the Jewish community. It is their believe that they even after reaching Kerala in a ship with 72 families under the leadership of Thomas of Cana they never mingled with the locals through marriages. It is this believe of not having mingled with any non Jewish or Knanaya people that the KCNS case and other civil court cases challenged by quoting references of marriages of Thomas of Cana to a local Indian Nair washer women and have had children born out of them.

Today science has advanced a lot and DNA testing is able to show scientifically if the above believes are facts or fiction created by men for their advantace and racial superiority. I request Alex Kavumparam and Mathew Therady to elaborate on this from a scientific and a DNA testing angle and complete the last section of this article. Can Mathew Therady or/and Alex Kavumparam complete this section with scientific evidence of DNA testing reports and references to bust the myth about the fundamental believe that the community if a pure community of Jewish decent having no admixture to the Indian population. Further with scientific and DNA testing report evidence justify that their claim to demand that they are pure blood community is a pure myth and false for them continue their endogamy  and expulsion practices.