Justin John, a member of Kottayam Knanaya Archdiocese in the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church, filed a contempt of court petition against Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt and Father Sijo Stephan, the parish priest of St Anne's Church, in the Kerala High Court on August 25.

John, in his petition, accused Moolakkatt and Stephan of denying him mandatory permission for his marriage in violation of an earlier high court order.

The marriage of John with Vijimol Shaji from Tellicherry Archdiocese in Kerala was fixed for May 18.

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The Eastern-rite Church in the southern Indian Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese is refusing to say the synod-approved Mass. The refusal is in open defiance of a pontifical delegate's directives.

The liturgy row

The archdiocese's priests and the laity want celebrants to face the congregation throughout the Mass. This has been their tradition since 1970.

They refuse to accept a liturgy which the Church's Synod of Bishops approved. In this, the priests must face the altar during the Eucharistic prayer.

After hearing Vasil's directive, only six of the 328 parishes in the archdiocese celebrated Mass in the synod-approved uniform mode.

In seven parishes, people stopped the priests from complying with the delegate's order.

An overwhelming majority of priests and parishes stuck to their traditional Mass, in which celebrants faced the congregation.

The delegate

Archbishop Cyril Vasil - the delegate appointed to settle the decades-old liturgy row amicably - has now returned to Rome.

Dissidents say he didn't follow his original mandate and his disciplinary actions have reportedly worsened the situation.

He threatened priests with excommunication if they failed to comply with his ultimatum - where he ordered all the archdiocese's priests to offer the Synod-approved Mass from August 20.

He also sought to close parish churches if they faced protests against his order.

On August 22, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath - the archdiocese's apostolic administrator - removed four junior priests in the archdiocesan seminary for not offering the Synod-approved Mass.

What now?

"I think now we are on a path of never going back. The feeling is to become an independent Catholic Church ... independent of an oppressive system," a senior priest says.

"Now it is clear that the people and the priests in the archdiocese do not want the uniform mode of Mass which the Syro-Malabar Synod wants to force upon us" says Riju Kanjookaran.

He's a spokesperson for the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency, a forum of priests, religious and laity spearheading the protest.

Vasil arbitrarily issued the ultimatum to the priests without even discussing the basic issues that stop them from adopting the uniform mode of Mass, Kanjookaran says.

The dissident group has called for the priests who celebrated the uniform mode for Mass in place of the traditional Mass to vacate their churches immediately.

They say Thazhath is the "main villain" who aggravated the crisis in the archdiocese since his appointment as apostolic administrator on July 30, 2022. They had sought his removal in the past and even boycotted him.

Meanwhile, back in Rome

Vasil "will apprise the pope and the prefect of the oriental congregations of his assessments about the difficulties in implementing the Syro-Malabar Synod-approved uniform mode of Mass in the archdiocese," an official statement from the Syro-Malabar Church says.

He will continue "as pontifical delegate" and will come again as part of his mission.

"Appropriate mechanisms have been put in place in the archdiocese to carry out further action," the statement added.

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

On April 15, a priest in the Kottayam Archdiocese allowed parishioner Justin John to engage with Vijimol Shaji of Tellicherry Archdiocese without John losing his membership in the community.

The 31-year-old John from St. Anne's Parish in the northern Kasargod district had his engagement ceremony at St. Francis Xavier's Church in Kottody village on April 17. Read more

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

The Kerela High Court dismissed an appeal by Cardinal George Alencherry seeking exemption from appearing in a district court.

The decision means the head of Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church will have to personally appear in a court in Ernakulam district in connection with the criminal cases pending against him.

Cardinal Alencherry had pleaded that the presence of his legal counsel be treated as his presence in court as he is "a senior citizen aged 77 years and the head of the Syro-Malabar Church" with duties like "performing religious ceremonies, rituals, including the ordination of bishops, priests, the consecration of churches" among other things.

Justice Ziyad Rahman dismissed the cardinal's pleas as "untenable" as the offences alleged against him were serious and "punishable with imprisonment for seven years or more".

The judge further observed that if the cardinal admittedly attends meetings across the globe, including in Rome, then he is not under any physical difficulty that could prevent him from appearing in court, which is barely three kilometres from his official residence.

The prelate is facing 14 criminal cases in connection with the dubious land deals executed in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese since his appointment as its head in May 2011.

Those accusing him of alleged corruption in the sale of Church lands claim a loss of US$10 million to the archdiocese.

A church official, who did not want to be named, told UCA News: "A Catholic bishop does not sell diocesan properties in his individual capacity. He only follows the advice of his council of priests and others empowered to do so."

These allegations forced the Vatican to curtail Cardinal Alencherry's administrative powers and an apostolic administrator in June 2018.

Hundreds of Catholics in Ernakulam-Angamaly staged a torchlight protest in front of the Archbishop's House, demanding the prelate's resignation as the Major Archbishop in wake of the court order.

The protestors said the prelate had brought shame to the entire Syro-Malabar Church and the Christian community in India.

Sources

• UCA News
• CathNews New Zealand

Members of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (AMT) set alight to the circular letter from Archbishop Andrews Thazhath outside Bishop's House in Ernakulum, Kerela.

Andrews Thazhath, the Apostolic Administrator of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, issued a circular on September 30. It reminded priests and laity of the Pope's communication to adhere to the unified mode of worship at all parishes under the Syro-Malabar Church.

The uniform mode was introduced in 1999 as a compromise between those who favoured the Holy Qurbana celebrated 'ad orientem' and those who preferred it celebrated 'versus populum'.

Under the "50:50 formula," priests face the congregation during the Liturgy of the Word but turn east for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Pope Francis has endorsed the formula, which has been adopted in other Syro-Malabar dioceses. But most clergy in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese want to continue facing the people throughout the Eucharistic liturgy, a practice they have followed for the past 50 years.

The prelate met with priests in a presbytery where he insisted that they should offer Mass as directed by the Church's Synod instead of the traditional style.

"We disagreed with the demand of the archbishop and tried to convince him of the reality in the archdiocese that nobody wants the synod Mass, but he was not ready to listen to us at all," said a priest on condition of anonymity.

Archbishop Thazhath then attended a meeting of the newly constituted curia after the presbytery meeting, from where he was escorted by police to a waiting taxi.

A group of laypeople inside the Archbishop's House shouted slogans demanding Archbishop Thazhath's resignation as he was escorted to the vehicle.

The AMT, a combine of priests and lay people, said that representatives of parish councils would meet on Sunday to discuss the developments. "It appears that our views have not been conveyed properly to the Vatican," said AMT spokesperson Riju Kanjookkaran on Saturday.

The AMT said representatives of various parishes would dump the circular in a public garbage bin on Sunday after a meeting at the Renewal Centre at Kaloor. It will be followed by burning the circular in all churches on 9 October.

Mr Kanjookaran said lay people and a majority of priests of the archdiocese were opposed to the implementation of the uniform Mass celebration. He claimed that the letter in which the Vatican had stood for a uniform Mass system was part of a personal letter received by Archbishop Thazhath. It was not a public document, as claimed by the archdiocesan administrator.

Sources

The Hindu

The Pillar

Matters India

Archbishop Antony Kariyil, the vicar of the major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in southern Kerala state, expressed willingness to resign on July 26, six days after he was summoned to the Vatican nunciature in New Delhi.

The nuncio issued a letter asking him to immediately tender his resignation, said archdiocesan officials from the eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church.

Archbishop Kariyil initially refused as no valid reason was cited for his resignation. However, officials added that he handed over a letter to the nuncio seeking to apprise Pope Francis about the developments.

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The financial controversy led to protests from some of his own clergy and laity, and his temporary loss of administrative authority by Vatican edict in 2018.

Officials of the Kerala state government, where Cardinal Mar George Alencherry's Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly is located, recently filed an affidavit with India's Supreme Court asserting that nothing illegal took place with regard to the land deals.

The Syro-Malabar church is one of 22 Eastern churches in full communion with Rome, claiming a following of roughly 2.5 million in Kerala and 4.25 million worldwide.

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