The growing phenomenon of competitive prayer and retreat groups within the Syro-Malabar Church and Kerala Latin Church, particularly among the over-50  diaspora, is not merely a spiritual trend but a destructive flight from marital and domestic duty. This movement, fueled by underlying family breakdown and the  financial freedoms of migration, directly challenges Catholic teaching and requires immediate, authoritative intervention. 

The Vicious Cycle: From Domestic Trauma to Spiritual Escape

 The disinterest in marital relationships and family life, which drives individuals into 24/7 prayer/retreat groups, is often rooted in deep-seated domestic and social  trauma. Factors that contribute to this desire for escape include:
* Marital Discord: Domestic violence and persistent family feud.
* Moral and Social Strain: Alcoholism or the immoral behavior of a spouse.
* Socioeconomic Imbalance: Imbalance of earnings among spouses and significant educational differences and imbalances of a spouse. 

 These pressures create an environment of emotional distress, causing individuals to actively seek ways to escape their commitments. They settle into the  external comfort of these groups, using activities like the retreat center support group, rosary prayer groups, so called Incarnations of God’s prayer groups, other  individual prayer groups, or "word of God" groups as an emotional and physical shield against the home.

It is deeply shameful to note that many don't value their married spouse and are instead interested in others' spouses. This troubling pattern begs the question: Is  this a lack of faith, a lack of understanding of marriage as a covenant, a lack of fear of God, or simply a misuse of freedom?

The Social Transition: Female Empowerment and Marital Drift
Another significant transition happening in the community is the rising of women with higher qualifications, a better vision in life, holding higher positions, and  control of the home. This dynamic is drifting families apart as women begin to think that, having gained power, money, and control, they do not need a spouse.  Therefore, the community’s faith, family, and the functionality of the core values in a family are triggered by such factors.

The Abandonment of the Domestic Church

This spiritual escape leads to a direct neglect of the primary Christian vocation: the family. These individuals have no time at home for essential duties like home  night prayer, cooking, cleaning, or yard cleaning. Instead, they always get out from the house and remain perpetually unavailable, keeping busy on the phone with  their groups. This pattern is not piety; it is flight.

 Worse, many members become addicted to different cult practices which are described as absolutely ridiculous and against the practice and teachings of the  holy Catholic Church. This move from Catholic devotion to unauthorized, often extreme, practices further fragments their faith and deepens the division within  their families.

The Global Amplifier: Freedom and Finance

 The problem is drastically exacerbated in the USA and elsewhere, where overwhelming freedom and available money serve as a significant instrument for  spouses to stay away from their families. The financial independence gained in the diaspora removes the economic constraints that might otherwise keep a family  together, allowing the spouse, often a lady who is the "main character," to prioritize these external groups over their marital bond, leading to the chaos and  destruction of families.

 The Primal Sin: The Analogy of the Garden of Eden

The core danger in this entire spiritual ecosystem is the sin of spiritual pride, which perfectly mirrors the original temptation. Individuals, often those above 50 or  who are no longer interested in intimacy and family life, are drawn to this sense of superiority:

“After 50, disinterest in family life and lack of interest in intimacy, they became super gods, greater than priests, theologians and pure in heart better than monks.” 

This self-exaltation—the desire to bypass God's established order—is not new:
When the Incarnations of God started in the world? It started in the garden of Aden. First parents eat the forbidden fruit due the desire to became like God. So, it’s  not new to the world.
The pursuit of self-proclaimed "super god" status is the forbidden fruit. Just as Adam and Eve sought knowledge and power apart from God’s command, these  individuals seek purity and authority apart from the sacramental structure and teachings of the Catholic Church. They substitute the legitimate authority of the  priesthood and the sacred obligations of marriage with the comforting, but ultimately deceptive, validation of their independent groups. 

 Where was this so called preachers and their followers most of them before turn in to 50’s?

The Call to the Hierarchy: Immediate Corrective Action

The Syro-Malabar Church and Kerala Latin Catholic Church authorities must recognize this situation as a clear and present danger to the integrity of the family,  the authority of the clergy, and the purity of the faith. A strong, unequivocal response is required to safeguard the church and take control of the lay people as per  the teachings of Catholic Church and its teachings and traditions.

 Decisive Corrective Measures Must Include:

* Asserting Canonical Authority: All self-proclaimed lay preachers and their groups must be immediately subjected to the direct, verified, and continuous control of  the local Bishop or his appointed priest. Groups that resist this oversight must be formally and publicly prohibited and disavowed. 

 
* Re-Catechesis on Marriage: The Church must issue stern, clear pastoral letters emphasizing that fidelity to the Sacrament of Matrimony is the paramount  devotional act for a married person. Spiritual flight from domestic duty is a sin, not a virtue.

* Condemning Cultic Practices: The cult practices and the ridiculous spiritual claims (being "greater than priests") must be explicitly condemned as dangerous and  contrary to Catholic doctrine. The faithful must be taught that true holiness is found in obedience and humility, not in self-assigned superiority. 

 * Integrating Spiritual and Domestic Life: Official Church programs must promote the concept of the Domestic Church, emphasizing that home night prayer,  spousal communication, and family duty are integral to holiness. No unnecessary external devotion, including the rosary or Word of God study, can justify the  abandonment of one's home, family and Parish.

The Path to Eternal Salvation
The escalating crisis necessitates a vigorous re-emphasis on the Domestic Church—the family—and the parish as the foundational pillars of true Catholic life. It is  within the home, as the first school of faith, that souls are properly oriented toward the truth. By strengthening these fundamental units, the Church can effectively  safeguard the Catholic faith in communion with the Holy See, ensuring the fidelity of the faithful to the Magisterium and sacred tradition. This is not merely a  matter of social order; it is the right way prescribed by the Church for the eternal salvation of the soul after death. True piety demands obedience and fidelity within  one's vocational state—first to the marriage covenant, then to the local parish, and ultimately to the universal Church—for this communional life is the surest path  to grace and the inheritance of everlasting life.

Failure to act decisively will allow this false spirituality, fueled by domestic strife and financial freedom, to continue its destructive path, eroding the foundation of  the Syro-Malabar community and Kerala Latin community globally.

Jaimon Nanthikattu (Chicago)