Jacobite Bishop hails CPI (M) for displaying Christ's picture

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While Kerala's Catholic establishment continued its attack on CPI (M) for displaying a picture of Jesus Christ in its exhibition here, a senior Metropolitan of Jacobite Syrian Church patted the party for showing reverence to Christ as 'the greatest revolutionary and liberator in human history.'


"There is nothing wrong in what CPI (M) has done. I am a Christian who believes that Christ has been the greatest revolutionary in history", said Metropolitan Verghese Mar Koorilos after visiting the exhibition organised here as part of the CPI (M)'s 20th state conference.


"If Christ's picture was not there, the list of liberators would not have been complete. The controversy over this has no relevance," he told reporters.



The Metropolitan said he believed Kerala society is mature enough to understand this and concede there is nothing wrong at the way exhibition organisers looked at Christ.


Defending display of a picture of the crucified Christ, CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat had said it was not done to run down religion or basic tenets of Christianity.


Terming it as an "unnecessary controversy", Karat in his inaugural address at the CPI(M)'s state conference, quoted Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to buttress the point that Christianity and Communism could co-exist.


"There are ten thousand times more coincidences of Christianity with Communism than with capitalism", was what Castro once told a meeting of Catholic priests, he said.


The Catholic Church and Congress in Kerala had objected to display of the Jesus portrait at the party exhibition, terming it a 'blasphemous act' intended to garner narrow political gain.


Besides the Jesus portrait, CPI-M was also embarrassed over a political version of the famous 'The Last Supper' painting of Leonardo da Vinci with U.S. President Barack Obama as the central figure in place of Jesus Christ, allegedly put up by party workers to depict the decline of capitalism.