Kochi: A senior priest of the Jacobite Church criticised a local church's refusal to allow burial of Mary John Akhouri, who is the grandmother of Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, at the church where she was baptised, describing it as against the Christian tradition.
Bishop of the Kottayam Diocese of Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Thomas Mar Themothios, said that the decision of the committee governing St John's Church, Kumarakom, not to fulfill the wishes of Mrs Akhouri was "not humane." She wanted to be buried at St John's Church as she had been baptised there.
"Burial of a dead person is a sacred act as per Christian tradition. Taking a decision contrary to it is not humane and also against the tradition of Christianity,"
the Bishop told reporters here.
It was following the Bishop's intervention that the mortal remains of Mrs Akhouri was laid to rest at the cemetery of a church at nearby Ponkunnam.
"The act of church was awful. But we should not concentrate on it. Rather we should look that we lost a family member," said Priyanka Chopra, speaking to ANI in Patna.
Mary John Akhouri died on June 3. She was 93.
A number of relatives, including Priyanka Chopra, flew down from Mumbai to perform the last rites.
Mrs Akhouri, who was born in the Kavalappara family at Kumarakom, had gone to Bihar as a nurse and later married Dr Akhouri.
