Our Lady of Visitation Church on St Mary’s Road, Abiramapuram has been shut.
This follows a notice from Chennai Corporation for what church lawyers termed as ‘ deoccupation’, which follows from an order by the Madras High Court that the church and some structures in its campus were unathourised since they did not have the requisite building permissions, and that they must be demolished.
Church goers told Mylapore Times that Masses on Sunday were held and that they were told that the church will be shut ‘ temporarily’ from Sunday night.
They also showed a communication from the archbishop, Rev. George Antonysamy that the church would be temporarily closed, that parishioners must attend religious services at other churches and that the pastoral council of the church and other bodies ‘cease to exist’.
Lawyers who represent the diocese said that legal steps are being taken to address the issues.
An ugly situation was witnessed at the Bishop’s House in San Thome last week, when a group of people, said to be parishioners of the Abiramapuram church, staged a protest against the diocese and archbishop. Following this, Rev. Antonysamy issued the ‘church closure’ order.
