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Fr Jose Kottayil, secretary to Kerala Catholic Bishops Council’s (KCBC) Commission for Family, said the church wants financially-sound families to beget more than two children. “The church will extend support to women who want to undergo reversal of tubectomy or recanalisation. For this, the church will work out cost-effective packages in the hospitals it runs.”
The KCBC, Fr Kottayil said, had announced last year that the church would encourage bigger families. It had then suggested that Catholic dioceses would explore the possibility of providing educational incentives for a fourth child.
Following a campaign by dioceses, he said many couples have come forward for recanalisation. At present, hospitals are charging Rs 40,000 for this surgical intervention. “We want to bring down the cost below Rs 10,000 in church-run hospitals,” he said.
In Kerala, Christians constitute 22 per cent of the population. Nearly 60 per cent of the Christians in the state are Catholic. In the last census, the Christian population had shown a decline of 0.32 per cent.
Some hospitals in Kerala have already undertaken recanalisation in a big way. “We are getting a good response for recanalisation. The pro-life movement of the Catholic Church has prompted a section of the women to undergo the reversal process,” said Marceles, a nun-cum-gynaecologist at Lourd’s Hospital at Kidangoor in central Kerala.
According to Fr Kottayil, another area of intervention would be infertility among young couples. “Addressing infertility will be a tightrope walk. The issue has to be tackled from a Christian point of view. Medical interventions such as semen donation cannot be allowed as these would infringe upon moral teachings of the church. But we will try all possible means,” he said.
The Thalassery Archdiocese in north Kerala recently held a gathering of parents who had a fourth child. Fr Benny Puthennada, Director of Family Apostolate in the diocese, said around 600 families attended the gathering. “We have adopted the fourth child from economically backward families to give financial assistance for education,” he said.
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When the government advocates reducing the population, and rightly so, how can the church encourage increasing the population. The government should step in and stop such practices of the church. Though I am catholic, I feel that its selfish on the part of catholic church to encourage people to multiply. The ills of over population is so evident and yet the church turns a blind eye to all that.
The root cause of the staggering poverty in India is over population. The church leaders may want a larger following. But will they educate, feed, clothe, provide employment to, provide housing, etc., to these numerous kids? Anyone with an iota of sense knows that when more people compete for the few resources available, the rich will be able to continue to exploit the poor. The government must react by denying any form of financial aid (housing loans, educational scholarships, admissions to educational institutions, etc.) to children of parents who have more than two children. It seems the church wants to perpetuate poverty in India. I hope the Catholics of Kerala and of India are smart enough to ignore the calls of their hierarchy.
if hindu leaders say increase population its communal.if muslim/christians say this its secular.what type of bs is this ???anything non hindus say is secular,anything hindu leaders say is communal.shame on us hindus for not making our population grow faster than muslim population.
In Kerala, there seems to be some kind of race among Christians and Muslims, especially the latter, to increase their numbers. Kerala and india are already over populated. The state does not have enough jobs for its existing population. People have realised it and are having the lowest number of children in India. If a Hindu group had asked Hindus to have more children, hell would have broken lose