Instructions from the Syro-Malabar Church head, Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, and from the archdiocesan administrator Bosco Puthur, were supposed to be read at Masses last week.

The synod required that Mass be celebrated facing the people during the Liturgy of the Word and facing the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Priests were warned in writing they would be excommunicated if they were to conduct any Mass other than in the synodal form after 3 July. Nor would parishioners attending such a Mass fulfil the Sunday obligation.

Defying the warning, clergy and parishioners from 321 churches in the archdiocese refused to do so.

They say they intend to stick to the full people-facing Mass even after the deadline.

Protests and verbal assaults

Protesters have set the archbishop's instructions on fire, thrown them into water and binned them.

At the Udayamperoor synodal church, some of the laity started an argument over the Archbishop's instructions during Mass..

Churchgoers reportedly pushed and shoved at each other over the issue.

Police had to intervene (see image) to maintain law and order.

Why defy the instructions

Clergy refused to read the instructions because they said facing the people throughout the celebration of the Mass represented their local tradition. It is also more in keeping with the liturgical teachings of the Second Vatican Council, they argued.

Over 450 priests and every parish committee in the archdiocese have stated multiple times before the Synod and the Vatican that they will offer mass only where the priest faces the congregation throughout the ritual. So says a "Lay People to the Fore" protest group spokesman.

"But the Church leadership has never considered the stand of the diocese or intervened to find a solution and instead has always tried to impose its agenda."

Abominable clericalism

One priest wrote to all the bishops in India.

"Archbishop Andrews Thazhath misused his power as the Apostolic Administrator and has obviously misguided and misinformed Pope Francis on the liturgical issues of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

"His unethical acts and reports have snowballed for the worse, which significantly is a minor issue of a rubric to a serious issue of ecclesial communion.

"This is, to say the least, utterly un-Christian and against the basic Gospel principles."

It was "abominable" he says.

Another priest says Thazhath was once the strongest proponent of the Mass versus populum (facing the people), "while now he has shamelessly backtracked by contending that the narrative and the theology is erroneous".

"One cannot miss the cruel, irresponsible and wild allegations ... in the latest circular ... which has pronouncedly condemned the people of the Archdiocese to be eternal victims of hierarchal apathy and highhandedness."

Source

• Times of India
• Crux Now

"Move away from the illegal Mass the archdiocese has been following, where the celebrant faces the people," Archbishop Cyril Vasil (pictured) told the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese laity and priests at Mass last week.

Those who reject the Vatican-approved Mass effectively reject the Catholic Church, he said.

A decades-old controversy surrounds the archdiocese's priests and laity refusing to accept a liturgy approved by their church's synod. The synod is the Syro-Malabar Church and the Vatican's highest decision-making body.

"There will never be God's blessing on illegal protest and rebellion," Vasil said.

He prayed for forgiveness for anything on the part of "anyone who may have given any reason for any real or supposed justification for this rebellion.

"Likewise, on my knees, I also ask you to no longer participate in this sin against our Lord and the Catholic Church.

"Answer in your heart. Are you with the Holy Father?" the Vatican delegate asked.

"Do you wish to remain priests and members of the Catholic Church and of your Syro-Malabar Church?

"Or do you wish to give preference to the voice of troublemakers who lead you towards disobedience to the Holy Father, to the legitimate pastors of your Syro-Malabar Church and to the Catholic Church?"

To this end, the Vatican asked Vasil as its delegate to remove Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese's apostolic administrator.

Syro-Malabar rejects request

Traditionalists want priests to face the altar throughout the Eucharistic celebration, while modernists wanted them to face the congregation.

The Church's synod in 1990 proposed a change to the Mass, asking priests to face the altar during the Eucharistic prayer and face the people at other times, which was seen as a comprise formula.

By November 2022, all 35 dioceses of the Church - except Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese - implemented the synod-approved Mass.

"We have informed our difficulty to engage with him any further," said an Ernakulam-Angamaly priest who was among a five-member delegation sent to speak to Vasil.

He and his confreres handed the Vatican delegate a copy of a memorandum which said they cannot cooperate with him for such a mission.

"We hereby reiterate our loyalty to the Holy Father Pope Francis.

"But, we have reservations to put into practice the exhortation regarding the uniform mode of celebration of Mass," the memorandum said.

"You have categorically stated that there is no room for dialogue and that you have no mandate to report our requests and concerns to the Holy Father... your language and approach are at times threatening rather than of dialogue...

"We have decided not to have any discussion or dialogue with Archbishop Vasil" as he is not ready to listen to us."

Pope is aware

In 2021, the Synod of Bishops prepared an order of the Mass and all its rubrics. The Vatican also approved it for implementation as "the uniform mode of celebration in the entire Syro-Malabar Church," Vasil said. That decision is not negotiable.

In 2022 Francis wrote to the priests, religious and lay faithful "renewing his request for prompt implementation" of the uniform liturgy.

Source

• UCA News
• UCA News

They burnt it in a public protest.

Archbishop Andrews Thazhath's circular insisted on a controversial form of Mass. That form has been the centre of a dispute for 50 years.

St Mary's Basilica, which is the seat of the Major Archbishop of the Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church, closed last December.

The closure followed physical violence inside it over the liturgy dispute.

The dispute

Most of the archdiocese's priests and laity have rejected an order of the Mass approved by the Church's synod.

The order demanded priests turn to the altar during the Eucharistic prayer.

Modernist priests and laity want the celebrants to face the people throughout the Mass. Traditionalists want the opposite.

The dispute led the synod to have a special gathering this month. It agreed to request the Vatican send a delegate to decide on the issue.

The circular

Despite this, Thazhath (who is also the Indian Catholic Bishops Conference president) issued the circular, insisting the archdiocese follow the synod-approved Mass.

"What is the need for the administrator to issue such a circular?" asked Riju Kanjookaran. He's the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency spokesperson, which led the protest in front of the closed basilica.

The administrator's June 22 circular ordered Cathedral Vicar Father Antony Narikulam to celebrate the synod-approved Mass in the Cathedral before July 2. It also threatened to transfer him without any prior notice if he fails.

Additionally, the circular warned of action against the parish council for opposing the synod's decision about matters like liturgy, which are beyond the council's jurisdiction.

Special synod

The administrator said these actions have been agreed upon during the Syro-Malabar Church's special June 12-16 synod.

The special synod followed Vatican directions to find a lasting solution to the archdiocese's liturgy dispute. However, the 56 bishops at the synod couldn't reach a consensus. They recommended the Vatican send a papal delegate to settle it.

"When the synod has decided to leave the matter for final adjudication to the Vatican, this circular is only aimed at creating trouble for the faithful and the priests in the archdiocese who are ready to work with the papal delegate for a final settlement," Kanjookaran says.

"We have complained against the administrator to the synod and would soon inform the Vatican about his coercive actions aimed at creating more trouble ahead of the visit of papal delegate."

Church officials say the Vatican still has to let the synod know about the delegate and his arrival date.

"At the movement, we only know that the synod has requested the Vatican to send a delegate. Nothing else is clear," one of the synod's bishops says.

Kanjookarn says the administrator continues his "terror acts" against the diocese's approximate 500,000 Catholics, including 400 priests.

"It is better for everyone to maintain peace as the ball is now in the court of the Vatican," one priest says.

Source

• UCA News