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ANGAMALY, India, Mon Apr 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Church and political leaders are mourning the sudden passing of Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, the strongly pro-life head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India who met with LifeSiteNews staff in India in 2006.

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According to a CathNewsIndia report, Cardinal Vithayathil fell unconscious while celebrating Mass around noon on April 1 and was rushed to nearby Lisie Hospital in Kochi, where he died at 2:30 pm.

Although the Indian government has for years promoted population control, the bishops of the Catholic Church in Kerala, which has highest percentage of Catholics in the country, have recently begun to encourage the faithful of their region to have more children as the birth rate of Catholics dropped below replacement level.

An historic pastoral letter written by Cardinal Vithayathil in 2006 was read in all Syro-Malabar rite parishes, warning Catholics not to view children as a “hindrance to a life of pleasure.”

The cardinal urged, “Those who have the means should come forward to have more children and bring them up.” He added, “Responsible fatherhood and motherhood demand this.”

Cardinal Vithayathil noted “today the tendency to avoid having children is on the increase among the couples who are motivated by selfishness to seek their own enjoyment.”

In the strongest language in the letter, the cardinal warned Catholics that it is sinful to refuse God’s gift of children without grave reasons: “There is sin and injustice to society behind the decision of not having children by those parents who have the means and normal health.”

LifeSiteNews Managing Director Steve Jalsevac and Editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen were both in Kerala, India in the summer of 2006 and had the opportunity to interview Cardinal Vithayathil at length. It appears that they might have played a significant role in the decision by the cardinal to issue his pastoral.

In an interview at the archbishop’s house in the city of Cochin, the commercial capital of Kerala, the cardinal confirmed to Jalsevac the vitality of Catholicism in Kerala but blamed the West for the encroachment of a contraceptive mentality in India. He noted how the “loose Catholic doctrine coming from Western countries” has led Kerala Catholics to assume the non-Catholic belief that using contraception is “a decision left up to the couple.”

He told LifeSiteNews that Kerala Catholics became aware of and were influenced by priests and bishops in the West opposing Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae.

“Contraception became common because of the influence of loose Catholic doctrine coming from Western countries. So that thing has influenced the people and they won’t say it in confession because they say it’s ok because each one decides it in conscience. Nobody openly challenges Humanae Vitae but no priest also talks about it. So, it is not being discussed, but Pope John Paul said you must form your conscience according to the teaching of the church,” Cardinal Vithayathil said.

“Up to about 50 years ago, and myself I am from a family of 8 children, 12 children was very normal,” he remarked.

Steve Jalsevac reveals that he was in India at the time for personal reasons with his son Luke. They were very impressed with the unexpected vitality of the Catholic faith communities throughout Kerala with their overflowing Sunday masses and numerous seminaries and convents and their hospitals and schools serving all the people of Kerala. However what struck Steve was that he did not notice any families with more than two children and most families had just one boy and one girl. Because of this he feared the Catholics and all the good that they were doing for Kerala would be gradually lost because of their inevitable demographic decline.

Jalsevac worked to arrange the meeting with the cardinal and eventually met with him in Kochi where he expressed his concerns to the cardinal. “Cardinal Varkey completely agreed with me” said Jalsevac,  “and said he was very worried about the situation, but did not know what to do about it.” 

“I encouraged him to do something to try to reverse the low birth rate and to learn about the population control movement and left him a copy of our article, The Inherent Racism of Population control” Jalsevac says, “but Cardinal Varkey said it is not their tradition to have priests telling the people to do something related to their sex lives. The people don’t like that, he said.” Still, Jalsevac insisted the cardinal had to try to do something, especially given the persistent pressures that the Indian people would be experiencing from the international population control forces.

On his trip to the same destination only two months later, LifeSiteNews editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen gave talks to almost 10,000 Catholics in Kerala emphasizing the “have more children” message. He also personally met Cardinal Varkey who heard the same message.

Very soon after John-Henry left, the Cardinal heroically broke the past tradition against clergy talking to the people about such issues, and, starting with the pastoral letter, he and other Kerala bishops began to encourage their people to consider having more children.

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a telegram of condolence to the Syro-Malabar church in India expressing his sympathy for those mourning the passing of the Cardinal, as well as his deep respect for the courageous prelate.

Addressed to Bishop Bosco Puthur, who has taken over as administrator of the Oriental Catholic Church, the pope noted, “During his relatively short tenure of leadership of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil led the Church through turbulent times with fortitude and foresight. Cardinal Vithayathil always witnessed to a preferential love for the poor and disadvantaged in society; and he spoke up for them in every forum.”

Read the full text of the LifeSiteNews interview with Cardinal Vithayathil in Cochin, India, here.