In his address to a delegation from the Eastern Catholic Church, including Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, the Pope emphasised the importance of unity over liturgical differences and historical grievances.

The Pope described the dispute over the liturgy as a dangerous temptation to focus on one detail to the detriment of the common good of the Church.

"It is incompatible with the Christian faith to seriously disregard the most holy sacrament, the sacrament of love and unity, by discussing the liturgical details of this Eucharist which is the culmination of His divine presence among us.

"Preserving unity is therefore not a pious exhortation but a duty, especially for priests who have promised obedience and from whom the faithful people expect an example of love and meekness" the Pope continued.

Francis began by reflecting on the ancient faith of the Syro-Malabar Church.

He praised the "vigour" of their faith and piety which is recognised worldwide.

He acknowledged past insensitivity when Western missionaries imposed European traditions on Kerala's Christians.

Francis also highlighted the need to respect the unique heritage of the Syro-Malabar Church.

He honoured the Syro-Malabar Church's historical fidelity, drawing on the legacy of St Thomas, the Apostle of India. He emphasised the value of the Christian East in providing ancient and fresh spiritual sources vital for the Church today.

Unity is a duty

Referring to the ongoing liturgical controversy, the Pope said he had "recently sent letters and a video message to the faithful, warning them of the dangerous temptation to focus on one detail".

This danger, he said, comes from "a self-referentiality, which leads to listening to no other way of thinking but one's own".

And it is here, the Pope warned, that "the devil creeps in", aiming to undermine Jesus' desire that we, his disciples, "be one" (John 17.2).

"For this reason" Pope Francis stressed, "guarding unity is not a pious exhortation but a duty".

Pope Francis remains firm: no concessions for those seeking to divide the Church.

His message is clear—unity and obedience are paramount to maintaining the integrity of the Catholic faith.

"Let us work with determination to protect communion" he urged, "and pray tirelessly that those who refused to accept the Church's rulings on liturgical issues may realise they are part of a larger family that loves them and waits for them".

Sources

Vatican News

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

The priests and laity are demanding a liturgy variant status to their traditional Eastern rite Syro-Malaba Mass.

Regardless of the outcome, they'll do what they think is right, even if it means splitting with the body of the Church, they say.

The latest round of protests - which have been ongoing for several years - have seen the priests and laity blockading the Vatican-appointed administrator Archbishop Andrews Thazhath's house.

He has put himself in the firing line with his diocese by ordering a parish priest to follow the approved format when celebrating the Eucharist.

Around 100 members from different parishes in the archdiocese have called on the parish priest and the rector asking them to ignore Thazhath (pictured).

Both the priest and rector reportedly accepted the laity's request and pledged their full support in their struggle.

The laity later announced the Vatican administrator will not be allowed to enter any Church institution until he withdraws the order.

"When more than 99 percent of priests and faithful are in favour of the traditional Mass, why is it not accepted?" said a priest who did not want to be named.

The priest also hinted that in case the administrator tried to have his way or initiate action against the parish priest and the rector, it may lead to the archdiocese "going its own way".

The nearly five-decade-old row over the way the Mass is celebrated revived last year after the synod of bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church issued a diktat that all its 35 dioceses should celebrate the Mass in a uniform way.

There was initial resistance in other dioceses, but they began following the synod-approved Mass last November.

The resistance continued and took a turn for the worse in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.

It is India's second-largest Catholic diocese.

The archdiocese is home to around 10 percent of the Syro-Malabar Church's five million Catholics.

"We will not call off our battle until our demand is met," the convener of the Archdiocesan Protection Committee says.

The Committee claims that around 500,000 faithful and 460 priests in the archdiocese support him.

These priests and laity accuse Thazhath of playing "dirty politics" and "misleading the Vatican".

Many Catholics are concerned as Thazhath, besides being the archbishop of neighbouring Trichur, is also the newly elected president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.

He wants the Vatican to step in immediately and settle the dispute, hinting a schism could follow if the dispute continued.

"If the protest movement is allowed to continue for long, there is a possibility the archdiocese might declare itself as an independent Church," said a Christian leader who did not want to be named.

Source

• UCA News

"We are glad that the high court has finally admitted the appeals," Shaiju Antony, joint convener of SOS, told UCA News on April 6.

Kerala High Court admitted the appeals filed by the accuser and the Kerala government on April 5. "It is a very strong case," the lay Catholic leader said while expressing the hope that the nun accuser will get justice from the high court. Continue reading

Fr. Pauly Padayatti, vicar of Nithya Sahaya Matha (Mother of Perpetual Help) church at Koodapuzha near Chalakudy in Thrissur district has been arrested by the police.

Despite the strict restrictions of the health department and the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) to temporarily suspend church services involving laity in churches, the vicar conducted the Holy Mass on Monday. Read more

Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC) nun, Kalappura complained the accused used social media to falsely portray her interactions with journalists as a salacious affair.

The police had registered the case after Kalappura made a complaint of illegal confinement.

Kalappura has been protesting against the former Bishop of Jalandhar, Franco Mulakkal, who had been accused of raping a nun.

She was expelled by the FCC early this month on the grounds that she failed "to give a satisfactory explanation for her lifestyle in violation of the proper law of the FCC".

He congregation had earlier accused her of publishing poems, purchasing a car and taking part in a protest against Mulakkal.

The National Women's Commission (NWC), a statutory federal body that advises the Indian government on all policy matters affecting women, is condemning the multiple harassment Kalappura is facing.

The NWC wrote to the Kerala police chief Loknath Behera asking him to arrest those targeting Kalappura. The letter arrived amid reports of the accused priest and nuns' attempts to slander Kalappura.

The alleged slanderous material was released by a priest from the diocese's public relations office team.

It included a defamatory YouTube video based on CCTV footage showing Kalappura entering an FCC convent with two men.

Father Noble Thomas Parackal, who produced the video, tried to malign the nun by suggesting that she had an illicit relationship with the men, who were found to be journalists.

However, Parackal omitted including images of a third journalist - a woman - who was with the men. He then made a second video justifying himself.

Kalappura is not the only person the accused priest and nuns are targeting, NWC says.

"While we are waiting for the investigations to get over in the rape case, these acts are tactics to put the victim under pressure so that she steps back."

The NWC demanded immediate action to be taken against Mulakkal and for a report on this from the police chief's office as soon as possible.

"We will not accept people holding respectable positions misuse their authority for wrongful actions," read the statement.

The former superior general of Missionaries of Jesus accused the bishop of rape on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016.

Source

• Matters India
• NDTV
• The Tablet
• Hindustan Times
• Image: The News Minute

Alencherry was removed from his administrative responsibilities last year after priests made public allegations that he sold off land and incurred a loss of US$10 million for the archdiocese.

Now a spokesperson for the priests says the Oriental congregation "faked the documents" to reinstate Alencherry without the Pope's knowledge.

They say there has been no direct official announcement from the Vatican on reinstating the cardinal or suspending the auxiliary bishops.

The only official announcement from the national bishops' conference referred to Francis asking the Apostolic Administrator to go back to his diocese as his term of office had ended.

"We have no other information," the vice-president of the national bishops' conference says.

The 250 priests, from India's Eastern Rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, want Pope Francis to intervene.

"From Pope Francis, who takes a firm stand for truth and justice, we expect a lasting solution for the issues facing the archdiocese," they said a statement.

The priests say a crisis of faith emerged in the Church when the Oriental Congregation reinstated Alencherry without providing any explanation for Alencherry's "moral decadence" in relation to the land deal.

The priests claimed that "even ordinary faithful" doubt the morality of reinstating the cardinal.

The Oriental Congregation also suspended Alencherry's two assistants from their auxiliary bishop posts, without publicly giving any reasons for doing so.

The Oriental Congregation has asked that the next synod of the local Church decide on their future roles.

The priests are condemning the lack of explanation.

Church sources said the suspension punishes the two bishops for being supportive of the priests, rather than of the cardinal.

Source

• UCA News
• Crux Now

The Cardinal was temporarily suspended following the start of a judicial proceeding that saw him involved in an alleged illegal sale of land belonging to the local Church.

The Cardinal has been definitively acquitted of all charges. Read more

"There are two Kerala priests at St Mary's Church on Ruahine St who support our people with their cultural and spiritual needs."

The two priests were employed after the Kerala Catholic organisation approached Bishop Charles.

"People feel at home there as our cultural ceremonies are important to us." Continue reading

When he came to our house for coffee, he lifted the curiously rounded hat and bowed with grave courtesy, a gesture I remember vividly because we did not know of such things then. Years later I would learn that it was a pith helmet.

We got to know Father Lawrence because attending his ramshackle chapel near our family farm was far easier than enduring the hilly, one-hour walk to our parish church.

The traditional-minded in our parish frowned upon this because the plantation church followed the Latin rite, not the Syrian rite, although both are Catholic. As for us children, none of this mattered in the least.

At the plantation church, we squatted on the mud floor brushed smooth with cow-dung paste and tormented ant lions in their tiny pits scratched into the earth. When we attended the parish church, we risked a caning to sneak into the downhill cemetery and peer into the "well," in which unearthed bones and skulls from old graves had been unceremoniously dumped.

Of course we had no way of knowing then that the Latin rite had come to Kerala by way of the 16th-century Portuguese or that the Syriac rite had come far earlier, in the centuries just following Christ's birth.

Therein hangs a tale of the spices—pepper, cardamom, cinnamon—that made Kerala a hot spot in the ancient world, a story that helps explain how Christianity came to India not once but twice. Continue reading

Source and Image

• An article by Paul Zacharia, a Malayalam short story writer, novelist and essayist. Photo is by Lynn Johnson in Smithsonian.com

Over the next 10 years, hundreds of alcohol outlets in Kerala will be shut down and "alcohol free" days enforced.

The General Secretary of the Hindu organisation SNDP Yogam, Vellappally Natesan, has called for the ban to extend to churches, while Bishop Mar Chrysostom of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church said that churches should consider using grape juice at Mass.

But the Archbishop of Verapoy, Francis Kallarackal, said that Mass without wine was "unthinkable".

"It will remain unchanged until the world ends," he told the New India Express.

The Bishop of Central Kerala in the Church of South India, Thomas K Oommen, agreed, saying that extending the ban to churches misinterpreted the Government's policy.

Continue reading

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said liquor outlets will be reduced by 10 per cent each year, eliminating sales completely within a decade.

Beginning next year, bar licenses will be issued only to five-star hotels, while many of the state's 720 bars and restaurants will not have their licenses renewed.

Kerala has India's highest annual per capita alcohol consumption, with annual sales reaching US$ 415 million.

The president of the Indian bishops' conference, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, congratulated Mr Chandy for "his bold steps toward making the state liquor-free".

Cardinal Thottunkal, head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, met the chief minister soon after the decision was announced, to hand him a US$1600 cheque for a new fund created to assist workers employed in the state's liquor stores.

The cardinal said Church leaders have been requesting a ban on alcohol sales for several years.

Continue reading

Celebrations were held in Kerala last month in a Syro-Malabar parish named for Sts Gervasis and Prothasis.

The saints were twin brothers who were scourged and beheaded for their faith in the second century near Milan in Italy.

The first gathering of twins to mark the feast in Kerala was in 2007, when 35 pairs attended.

The celebration in Kothanalloor includes a procession of twins, a dedication service led by Palai Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt, Mass and lunch for 3000 people.

Fr George Njarakunnel said his parish collects funds and hosts guests from across Kerala state.

This year's gathering included five sets of twin nuns and three pairs of twin priests.

One school sent 23 sets of twins.

Kothanalloor parish alone has 62 pairs of twins among its 750 families.

Continue reading

The Left Democratic Front, an alliance of communist parties in Kerala, has come out for the candidates because of a common position on a land issue.

Christian groups, led by a number of Catholic bishops, have been campaigning against government plans to increase environmental protection in the Western Ghats region which runs through Kerala.

Christian leaders say the plans would displace millions of poor farmers - the majority of them Catholics.

A senior communist leader told ucanews that they had discussions with Catholic Church representatives.

"We have indicated that we would field a candidate of their choice," he said.

Kerala's Catholic bishops called on believers in the state to vote only for those who can ensure the protection of ordinary farmers living in fear along the Western Ghats.

In a pastoral letter, the bishops wrote that for Catholics, environmental protection is a way of life.

"But at the same time we should also be able to correct attempts to protect flora and fauna at the expense of humans," the letter states.

An Indian political analyst said this support of Christian candidates by communists is unprecedented in India.

Sources

• UCA News
• Deccan Chronicle
• Image: Outlook India

The temperance commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council also wants a ban on church institutions employing people who drink, and a ban on drinking alcohol at weddings.

The commission's secretary, Father P. J. Antony, said the extreme stand was taken in view of "the crisis the Kerala society is going through due to excessive drinking".

He said the proposals were based on the teachings of the Bible and were also in accord with scientific studies that showed alcohol caused various physical and mental illnesses.

But the president of the commission, Charlie Paul, said making drinking a sin might need more theological backing. "Some bishops have reservations on this and want it to be referred to theological experts," he said.

Christianity is believed to have reached Kerala with the arrival of St Thomas in the year 52. The state's 6 million Catholics — in Latin, Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara rites — make up about 20 per cent of the population.

The temperance commission, whose vision is a drug-free Church and society in Kerala, was founded in 1998 and operates in all 29 Catholics dioceses in the state.

It also wants the state government — which earns more than 40 per cent of its revenue from alcohol — to get out of the liquor trade.

Kerala has India's highest rate of consumption of alcohol. The accident rate from road crashes is more than twice the national average, and alcoholism is seen as an underlying cause of increasing suicides and divorces.

"Alcoholism is a serious problem in Kerala, and we have to take tough measures to counter it," the commission's chairman, Bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril, said earlier this year.

Sources:

The Asian Age

Christian Today India

Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council

Image: Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council

The strategy comes as India's population tops 1.2 billion, making it the second most populous country in the world after China, and runs counter to a national government policy of limiting family size.

But in the southern state of Kerala, where Catholics have long been a large, important minority, church authorities believe the state's overall Christian population could drop to 17 per cent this year, down from 19.5 per cent in 1991. While they don't have precise numbers for the Catholic population, they believe it is also dropping sharply.

"The Christian community in Kerala is dwindling. We realised that if the numbers decreased further, it would have a negative impact on the community," said Babu Joseph, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India in New Delhi.

Christianity is widely thought to have come to India in the year 52, when St Thomas came to Kerala after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

What remains unsaid in Kerala is that the state's Muslim population grew by 1.7 per cent between 1991 and 2001, while the Hindu and Christian populations have fallen.

Kerala, once a communist bastion and the state with the highest literacy rate, was about 56 per cent Hindu, 19.5 per cent Christian and 24 per cent Muslim in the last census in 2001.

• Read more: Stuff.co.nz
• Image: St Thomas