Kreupasanam Marian Retreat Centre, a church-run charismatic prayer outfit in Alappuzha district of Kerala, is in news for all wrong reasons.
The Centre brings out a monthly newspaper, Kreupasanam, which, the Church authorities claim, has supernatural powers that can cure all ailments — right from terminal brain cancer to mundane piles. The prescription: keep the Kreupasanam paper on the affected body part for some time and within 24 hours, “your ailments will be cured, howsoever serious the disease is”, vouch the faithful in televised testimonials. If that is not enough, the centre will give you a ‘miracle oil’ which can also be applied on the affected part for additional comfort.
However, what the ‘divine paper’ failed to cure was the centre’s founder-director Father Joseph Valiaveettil’s fever. The man “with divine powers” had to be hospitalized for two days and the doctors gave him a short course of antibiotics.
Rationalists have been running a campaign against the Centre for “spreading superstitions in the society”. However, the Centre continues to draw huge crowds daily — some of them “highly educated”!
Holy remedies
The Centre’s website is full of claims of believers testifying how their complicated medical conditions were cured simply by placing the paper on their body. One woman placed Kreupasanam paper on her stomach and her stomach ache vanished.
Among the beneficiaries is a person whose ‘piles problem’ got remedied after using the ‘newspaper medicine’, according to a Marunadan Malayali report.
The Church authorities supplied the paper to schools and asked children to keep it amid books so that they could score good marks in their exams.
The ‘divine paper’ failed to cure the centre’s founder-director Father Joseph Valiaveettil’s fever. The man “with divine powers” had to be hospitalized for two days and the doctors gave him a short course of antibiotics.
Carried away by the testimonies, a woman made a pulp of the paper and mixed it with batter and fed ‘divine dosas’ to her daughter “to speed up the girl’s marriage prospects”. The poor thing fell ill due to food poisoning and had to be admitted in a hospital. The hospital bills, according to some social media reports, ran up over Rs 1 lakh. After the news became viral, the girl resigned from her job as she couldn’t face the ignominy. Oh my God!
Even as such complaints pile up against the Kreupasanam centre, the Left Front government led by Pinarayi Vijayan has chosen to turn a blind eye to the issue. Moreover, the generous state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had reportedly sanctioned Rs 25 lakh to one of the activities of the Centre.
For the Indian Lefties, Hinduism is the only religion that is riddled with superstitions. After his quixotic anti-Sabarimala move, Vijayan’s government is embarked on another moronic campaign — in the guise of combating superstitions. The government proposes to bring in a law to curb superstitions in the society. Looking at the provisions of the proposed legislation, one can easily say that the orientation is clearly anti-Hindu.
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