A magazine the Catholic Church publishes has been asked to withhold the publication of a report on a series of land sales by the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala. Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry made several land sales which allegedly cost the church a lot of money.

Indian Currents Chief Editor Suresh Mathew told The Hindu that his superior told him to withhold the cover story of the magazine’s weekly edition, which was about the land deal. Mathew said he was asked to withhold the story until the church’s internal investigation into the deal was over. He denied that the report had been banned.

“As a priest, I should be obedient,” Mathew told Deccan Chronicle. “When I received a call and an email from the Provincial House asking me to wait until the internal inquiry was over, I had no choice but to withhold the story at the last moment.”

The cover story, titled Cardinal Sin, describes how the land deals landed the archdiocese in a “mess”, and had taken the credibility of the Catholic Church “on a slippery slope”, The Hindu reported. The story was to have been published on the publication’s website on the morning of Saturday, January 7.

According to some reports, the land sales have caused problems within the community, with some priests demanding Alencherry’s resignation. Former Ernakulam MP Sebastian Paul has also said that Alencherry should “break his silence” on the deals since the reports that have emerged are “grave”, The New Indian Express reported.