Amidst increasing clamour among the Catholic laity over the lack of transparency in the management of assets owned by the church, intellectuals from across the country have now begun demanding a law to govern properties owned and managed by the church.

Speaking during a lecture on "Should there be a law to protect the properties of the Church", organised on Tuesday by the All India Catholic Union (AICU), former Supreme Court justice K T Thomas said that the Roman Catholic church's unwillingness to enact a law for administering their properties "was on account of a fear that a provision for judicial scrutiny is likely to expose the expenses and the magnitude of wealth of the denomination".