By Jose Kavi

New Delhi: One of the two prelates, who brokered peace in troubled Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in Kerala, says he is “extremely happy” with the outcome of their efforts.

“It was indeed divine intervention that the priests and bishops could agree to resolve their problems in true Christian spirit just before the Holy Week,” Cardinal Baselios Mar Cleemis Cardinal Cleemis, heads the Syro-Malankara Church, told Matters India March 26.

Cardinal Cleemis and Archbishop Maria Calist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum met five times with the priests and bishops of Ernakulam-Angamaly to resolve the land sale dispute that alleged caused huge financial loss to the Syro-Malabar archdiocese.

Archbishop Pakiam is the president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council and a top leader of the Latin Church in the southern Indian state.

Cardinal Cleemis said the two volunteered to intervene in the matter out of concern for a “Sister Church” embroiled in a controversy causing serious damage to the mission of the entire Church in India.

Several priests of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese had demanded the resignation of Cardinal George Alencherry, their bishop and head of the Syro-Malabar Church. They accused the cardinal of lack of transparency in financial matters and misleading the priests’ council.

Some lay people had approached even the Supreme Court to press for police case against

Cardinal Cleemis, the immediate past president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said he and Archbishop Pakiam met separately with the protesting priests and Cardinal Alencherry and his two junior prelates.

After a day-long negotiation on March 23, the two groups agreed to settle the matter amicably. Cardinal Alencherry met the priests to express his regrets over the controversy.

Cardinal Alencherry’s address to the priests helped break the ice as he had been avoiding such a meeting since the controversy arose. “Lack of communication between the cardinal and the priests was a major problem,” Cardinal Cleemis explained.

The Malankara prelate also said the bishops and priests have agreed to recover the financial loss by selling the property pledged by a realtor who had negotiated the land sale.

On March 24, Cardinal Alencherry joined his juniors –Auxiliary Bishops Sebastian Edayanthrath and Jose Puthenveettil of Ernakulam-Angamaly — to release a statement to express their happiness in resolving the controversy.

They also bemoaned that some groups spread false information regarding the land sale through TV channels and social media to damage the Church’s image.

Cardinal Cleemis said the priests council has agreed not to use social media or television channels to air their views. Cardinal Alencherry and the two bishops asserted that they had not authorized anyone to speak for the Church in television channels and other forms of media. “The official spokespersons would speak for the Church at the appropriate times,” they added.

Cardinal Cleemis said he and Archbishop Pakiam have requested the Syro-Malabar Synod to take forward the peace negotiations and ensure vested interests do not use media platforms to work against the Church’s interests.

Cardinal Alencherry and his junior prelates have denied connection between the current land sale controversy and the liturgical dispute that has troubled the Syro-Malabar Church for decades.

Cardinal Alencherry is originally from Changanacherry archdiocese the leads a conservative and rigid group that wants to revive ancient traditional and rituals of the Syro-Malabar Church that traces its origin to St Thomas the Apostle.

The Ernakulam archdiocese, which the cardinal now heads, leads another group that wants to move with modern times adapting customs and rituals from the Latin Church.

The land controversy had raised doubts about Cardinal Alencherry leading the Palm Sunday ceremonies in St Mary’s Cathedral, the main church in the archdiocese. Some priests and lay people had reportedly opposed his presence for ceremonies that launch the Holy Week programs.

Addressing the Sunday Mass in the cathedral, the cardinal acknowledged that power and money make people impure. “All are impure in one way or the other. You and I are also among those who are impure. Individuals, families and the Church need to be purified,” the cardinal told the faithful.

“We should purify ourselves and purification at the time of Palm Sunday should be a deep one,” he asserted.