At 63, Biju Uthup is de-termined to continue litigat-ion stretching three decades seeking court intervention to stop his local Catholic diocese from discriminating against people based on “purity of blood.”
Uthup, a retired scientist from India’s Aeronautical Development Agency, began his struggle in 1989 when his diocese refused to recognize his marriage on the grounds that his grandmother belonged to the Latin rite.
His grandmother’s “impure blood” made him impure and hence, he cannot be a member of the diocese, he was told.
“It shocked me. But the Church leaders were not ready to change, forcing me to move civil court to fight this demonic idea,” Uthup said.
His archdiocese of Ko-ttayam, a diocese until 2005, was established in 1911 for an endogamous Catholic community within the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church. The group, known as the Knanaya community, would not accept those marrying from other Catholic dioceses, who they consider Catholics of impure blood.