Image

The CPI-M dismissed it as the Pope’s personal observation that “held no weight”.

Published on 29 March, 2012
The CPI-M dismissed it as the Pope’s personal observation that “held no weight”.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in Kerala has dismissed Pope Benedict XVI’s view that communism is no longer relevant for the world.

S. Ramachandran Pillai, CPI-M polit bureau member and ideologue, said the Pope’s comment was his personal observation that didn’t carry much weight in the Indian context.

The senior party leader said in Kozhikode in the southern Indian state that the “pope is at liberty to make his opinions. We don’t take it seriously.”

The pontiff had during his five-day visit to Mexico and Cuba on March 23 said, “communism no longer works in Cuba and the Roman Catholic Church was ready to help the island nation find new ways of moving forward without ‘trauma’”.

He said that it is evident that the Marxist ideology, in the way it was conceived, no longer corresponds to reality today.

Pillai said that pope’s statement was incapable of driving Christians away from the communist party.

The 74-year-old suggested that the Catholic Church should collaborate with the party to better the lives of poor as “we share some common concern.”

“We can still collaborate without compromising on ideological stand,” he said.

Meanwhile, Catholic Church leaders in the state criticized the communist leader’s remarks against Pope.

“Pope’s comments on Marxism are rooted in reality. But the communists have failed to understand this social reality and are imprisoned in their vanity,” said Archbishop Joseph Powathil, archbishop emeritus of Changanassery.

He said that the communists will never understand their mistakes and continue to live with their failed dogmas.

The Communist Party of India was founded in the 1920s to create an alternative mass movement to the existing Congress anti-imperialist movement. It came into existence in Kerala in 1939.

The communists were the first elected party to rule Kerala state in 1957 ever since the Church and the party have been at loggerheads with each other.

In 1964, a large leftist faction of the CPI leadership, based predominantly in Kerala and West Bengal, split from the party to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Join WhatsApp News
മലയാളത്തില്‍ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയ്യാന്‍ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക