Kottayam: Even as Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra decried a Kerala church's act of refusing to bury her grandmother, the parish vicar has come out defending the decision saying that safeguarding the faith of the followers is what is important for the church.
"The church only followed age-old tradition and rules. This incident is getting media attention as the woman was a celebrity's grandmother," explained Fr Simon Manuel of St John's Church at Attamangalam near Kumarakom in Kottayam.
"It's the believers who are important for the church, not Priyanka Chopra," Manuel added.
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Priyanka's grandmother Mary John Akhouri, who died on June 3, could not be buried in the St John's Church at Attamangalam near Kumarakom because she had married a Hindu.
She was buried in the St Thomas Jacobite Church at Ponkunnam on June 5 after the caretakers of the Attamangalam church objected to her burial.
'Awful'
Chopra said the act of the church was 'awful' while talking to a national news agency. She said she was not concentrating on the issue as it is a time of mourning as she lost a family member.
The actor's relatives claimed that Mary John had confessed and received communion in the same church two years ago. The church even flaunts a Raja Ravi Varma painting gifted by the family, they alleged.
The church trustees, however, stood their ground, saying that Mary John had abandoned the ways of the church after her marriage and she had never shown any interest to come back to the community's fold.
Priyanka Chopra and other relatives had flown down from Mumbai to perform the last rites in Kerala a day before the funeral of Mary John.
Born as Mary in Kavalappara family at Kumarakom here, Madhu Jyotsna Akhouri had gone to Bihar as nurse and later married Dr Akhouri.
Besides Priyanka's mother Madhu Chopra, she is survived by two other dauthers and a son.
(With agency inputs)