Three Acres, Rs 9 Crore Received, Rs 80 Crore Claimed: A Land Deal Costs an Indian Cardinal Control of His Archdiocese

• The Vatican appointed an administrator to run the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in Kerala
• The move followed a disputed 2016 sale of three acres of church land in Kochi
• The archdiocese received Rs 9.13 crore; critics said the plot was worth at least Rs 80 crore
• The sale was meant to repay a Rs 60-crore bank loan taken for a medical college

In June 2018 the Vatican moved to take day-to-day control of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in Kerala, India, away from Cardinal George Alencherry, Scroll reported on June 23. Pope Francis appointed Palghat Bishop Jacob Manathodath as apostolic administrator “Sede Plena”, according to Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

At the heart of the dispute was a land sale. In 2016 the archdiocese sold three acres in Kochi. The church’s agent valued the property at Rs 27.30 crore, but the archdiocese received only Rs 9.13 crore. Critics claimed the plot was worth at least Rs 80 crore. The sale had been meant to repay a Rs 60-crore bank loan taken for a medical college.

Kochi police filed charges against Alencherry and three others in March 2018, but the Kerala High Court dismissed the case in May, citing errors of jurisdiction. Alencherry denied wrongdoing, saying the complaint came from someone without direct knowledge of the transaction. He kept his position as Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly and head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and his spokesperson said he did not need to quit his role as cardinal.

The dispute turned on a simple gap: between what the church’s own agent said the land was worth, what the archdiocese actually received, and what critics believed it could have fetched.

The lesson travels well to Jamaica, where churches hold land across every parish and some have borrowed against it to build schools and other institutions. When a church sells property to clear a debt, the gap between an agent’s valuation, the price actually received and what critics believe the land is worth can quickly become a crisis of trust. Independent valuations, open tendering and a clear record of who approved each step protect both the church’s balance sheet and its reputation. The Kerala case shows what happens when members believe those steps were skipped.

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