THE WORLD’S second largest oriental Catholic Church, located in Kerala is buying a number of properties in the United States. The real reason behind the buying spree of the Churches is quite simple - increase in the number of followers means increase in the number of places of worship.

Fr G Madathiparambil, ex-vicar general of St Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago who has established many churches, told The Times of India that they have a number of communities in the US, and they have started owning private churches only quite recently. He is also the man behind the establishment of many new churches. Most of the churches in US owned by this denomination are constructed in Kerala style churches and have services in both English and Malayalam. They own a total of 22 churches and the first Church was bought in 1992. However, as per the paper, most of the expansion happened in the recent years. Although the running expense is quite high yet the properties are bought with the help of bank loans and also from the contributions of various parishioners. The next on the list is a parish Church in New Jersey and the land has been bought for $1 million and another $2 million would be spent on the construction. They have also thought of setting up of Churches in Washington and Arizona.