Indian priests entitled to their ‘worldly pleasures’

A high court in southern India has ruled that priests and nuns are entitled to their property despite vows of poverty, signalling an end to a centuries-old tradition that has left many in the clergy destitute.

Ruling in favour of a Catholic priest whose relatives had cut him out of his share of property, the court in Kerala state said last week that there could be no “automatic deprivation” because he was in a religious order and had “renounced worldly pleasures”.