Kerala Catholic Bishops Council slams ex-Kerala CM's son for justifying conversion of church in Turkey to mosque

The Kerala CatholicBishops' Council on Friday hit out at Chandy Oommen, son offormer Congress chief minister Oommen Chandy for allegedlyjustifying the conversion of Hagia Sophia church in Turkey toa mosque.

Chandy Oommen, a youth congress leader in a recentspeech at a venue of the Youth League, said thousands ofchurches were converted into dance bars and no one had anyissue.

KCBC in a statement said it was not right to''cultivate communalism'' for garnering votes in election.

''Young leaders should understand history whilefunctioning as a political leader.His speech has pained theChristian community.Chandy Oommen has justified the MuslimLeague leader who had suported the conversion of the churchinto mosque.'' ''What is the purpose of whitewashing theanti-Christian act throughthis immature behaviour,'' the KCBCsaid in a statement.

The KCBC also said such communal statements willhurt society, especially before the elections.

However, Chandy Oommen in a statement said a part ofhis speech was cherry-picked to create a controversy.

''Thousands of churches in England andSpain arebeing converted to bars.No one has any issue with that.Sincelast 30 to 40 years, thousands of churches were beingconverted to dance bars and no onehad any issue.However, it'sbeing used to create communal divide.'' ''It's unfortunate.Do we really need to fight eachother for some matters which had happened in some othercountry,'' Chandy Oommen said.

On Friday evening, he issued a clarification, sayingthe RSS and the CPI(M) were spreading false news.

''Those spreading false news are trying to misleadthe Christian community,'' he said, adding that it was adangerous trend.

The issue assumed significance amid reports that theUDF were straying away from the Christian community ahead ofthe state Assembly polls likely in April-May.PTI RRT BNADMINISTRATOR BNADMINISTRATOR