Sr. Abhaya’s sainthood and the miracle of Ex. Minister K.M. Mani’s resignation

I am back after a long break.

The immediate provocation to restart my ‘musings’ is the ‘forced’ resignation of K.M. Mani as minister of Law and Finance from the present Omman Chandi government of Kerala.

Strong rumors have been floating around regarding the involvement of Mani in the cover up of the murder of Sr. Abhaya and in protecting the priests. nuns and even someone at the Episcopal level suspected of involvement in the case.  The story doing the rounds in those days was that the ecclesiastical crowd went to the C.B.I. Director along the following path – Mani – Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran – Indian Prime Minister Rao – C.B.I. director. That was how the clerical establishment manipulated to get the entire investigation derailed, not once but thrice. The case will go on and on until perhaps the accused and episcopal kingpin are dead. Neither Sr. Abhaya nor her financially poor parents will ever get justice from the notoriously corrupt political or investigative agencies of India.

However, there is something called ‘natural justice’. This is a mysterious force. It is similar to the mysteries of the Holy Trinity (One God in Three Gods), virgin birth, and the bodily ascension of Jesus to ‘heaven’.  Unlike these mysteries which no learned theologian has been ever able to cogently explain to the understanding of the common man, natural justice is a mystery in the sense that it is something that we experience all around us on a daily basis. If A does something good to B, B may not return the favor, but it may be C who does something good to A. If I murder someone, there is a strong possibility that I will get my comeuppance. It may not necessarily be from that person’s relatives but from a totally strange person. These rewards or retaliations may not happen in every case, but from experience, there is a strong statistical possibility of this happening. It may not happen even in one’s lifetime. Often it is the children who are the beneficiaries of their ancestors’ good deeds and vice versa. ‘Sins of the fathers often visit the children’.

Is Mani getting his comeuppance for siding with the forces of evil in the Abhya murder case?

Mani has been in politics for more than half a century. He is rightly regarded as a crafty politician by many. He has become the blue-eyed boy of Kerala Catholic clergy and hierarchy. He has always been for them, acceding to their demands and solving their problems. Apparently, he has helped clerics and nuns involved in sexapades, pedophilia and murder by using his political clout. In turn, the Kerala hierarchy has been urging the faithful to support Mani and his party the Kerala Congress.

Mani, his son Jose K. Mani and recently his wife Kuttiamma have often found a place on the podium during most functions of the Kottayam Knanaya diocese along with the usual crowd of justices and chevaliers. Their photos are flashed across the diocesan publication “Apna Desh”. There is no doubt that the Knanaya community and its clergy is a grateful group. I have been told reliably that some members of the community have achieved high positions in different wings of the government, not so much through their own merit, rather by pulls and pushes by the ever manipulative Mani.

The fall of this man from the high pedestal he propelled himself through backstabbing and money power could not even be imagined a couple of month back. This is nothing short of a miracle. I am quite convinced that this miracle happened through the intercession of Sr. Abhaya. This is part of the mystery of natural justice.

Mani’s fall is all the more hurting because he has fallen from very high. And that too for a paltry bribe of some 15 lakh rupees. According to P.C. George, his nemesis, Mani has accumulated wealth to tune of 15000 crores of rupees in various parts of the world. Time will tell how far he or his posterity will enjoy this windfall of corruption. Here the mystery of natural justice will hopefully unravel.

Sr./St.Abhaya

Back to Abhaya and the miracle of Mani’s resignation through her intervention.

It is high time for the Kottayam Knanaya diocesan authorities to initiate the canonization of Sr. Abhaya. If Sr. Aphonsa can become a saint because of her suffering and dedication to Jesus, Sr. Abhaya has all the more right to sainthood for having protected her chastity and womanhood from lustful clerics. She must be regarded as a martyr like St. Maria Goretti who was only 11 years when she was stabbed 14 times to death while defending her chastity from a would-be rapist by name Alessandro. Besides, like St. Alphonsa, St. Abhaya can become a source of enormous riches for the church. There is one hurdle in the process of canonization that is often difficult to overcome – a miracle through the intercession of the proposed candidate for sainthood. In Sr. Abhaya’s case this intervention/intercession/involvement has already happened in the resignation and fall of Mani, the so-called giant of Kerala politics – more of an ogre with feet of clay.

This one miracle should satisfy the Catholic Church’s criteria for declaring Abhaya a saint.

There are many aspirants from the Knanaya community to sainthood. I suspect that in this race some less deserving candidates are already laying the foundations for their canonization post-mortem. Unless Sr. Abhaya’s case is fast tracked for sainthood like John Paul II, I fear the Church will end up with a St. Steffy as patron saint of women who have undergone hymenoplasty.

St. Maria Goretti