Pope denies St'Thomas presence in India

"Thomas evangelized Syria and Persia," says Pope Benedict XVI

His reluctance to believe what fellow disciples said about Jesus Christ's resurrection earned him the name Doubting Thomas. Centuries later, St. Thomas — believed to be the man who brought Christianity to India — finds himself in the shadow of ‘doubt' with none other than the Pope contradicting his evangelical trek in the country, only to modify it a few days later. But far from dousing the fire, the Pope has rekindled a debate and given critics an issue on the platter.

Pope Benedict XVI made the statement at the Vatican on September 27, 2006. Addressing the faithful during the Wednesday catechizes, he recalled that St. Thomas first evangelized Syria and Persia, and went on to western India from where Christianity reached Southern India. The import of the statement was that St. Thomas never travelled to south India, but rather evangelized the western front, mostly comprising today's Pakistan.

Knowingly or unknowingly, he had in one stroke challenged the basis of Christianity in India and demolished long-held views of the Church here that St. Thomas landed in Kerala, where he spread the gospel among Hindus. The comments were especially a let down for the Syrian Christians of Kerala, who proudly trace their ancestry to upper-caste Hindus said to have been evangelised by St. Thomas upon his arrival in 52 AD. The comments went unnoticed until Sathya-Deepam, the official mouthpiece of the Syro-Malabar Church, picked it up. Writing in it, George Nedungat, a member of the Oriental Pontifical Institute of Rome, conveyed the community's anguish and claimed that previous Popes had recognized St. Thomas's work in South India.

G. Ananthakrishnan
Times of India, New Delhi, 26 December 2006