By an official decree, Pope Francis has dismissed Anand Muttungal of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, the former spokesperson of the Catholic Church, from priesthood. With the order, he is no more a priest, and now onwards, he is an ordinary lay man.
The official communication states “Now, with regret and pain, I wish to formally communicate to everyone that by an official Decree from our Supreme Pontiff Pope Francis, Anand Muttungal (Joseph M.T) of the Archdiocese of Bhopal, has been dismissed in poenam (penalty) from the clerical state and dispensed from all his clerical obligations, including that of celibacy.” Archbishop Leo Cornelio wrote in his circular dated Nov. 26.
Anand Muttungal age 48 had served as the Archdiocesan public relations officer for eight years both under Jesuit Archbishop Emeritus Pascal Topno and Archbishop Cornelio SVD. However in 2013, Muttungal on account of his behavioural inconsistencies was removed from the post of public relations officer.
“The Archdiocese had tried for the past ten years to bring Muttungal back and reintegrate him into “our priestly communion, which turned to be an exercise in futility” says Archbishop Leo Cornelio SVD. Further, the Archbishop points out that the decision to dismiss Muttungal is “final “and there is no appeal against the pope’s decision.
The Archbishop further asks everyone to earnestly pray that Muttungal “may gracefully accept the decision of our Supreme Pontiff and make a positive turn in order to begin a new chapter in life.”
Early this year, Anand Muttungal was released from a jail in Bhopal after 50 days. He was arrested on December 11, 2019, from his residence by the officials of Economic Offence Wing (EOW), a special branch of the state police dealing with economic offences. He was later produced before a special court that remanded him to 15-day judicial custody. The priest later tried twice to obtain bail from the same court without success. Subsequently, he moved the principal bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur which granted him bail on January 28.
Muttungal was, however, released from the jail two days later after furnishing a bond of 50,000 rupees. Charges against Anand Muttungal reportedly included cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, and forging documents.
The case was registered on October 17, 2019, after almost two-years of preliminary investigation said a police official “The priest is the first among eight people named as accused in the case.”
