By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, August 30, 2019: The Vatican Congregation for Oriental Churches has expressed grave concern over the “sad events” in the management of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly in Kerala, India.
The “attitudes of some priests and laity have provoked and continue to cause a lot of suffering and great concern,” says Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the congregation, in a letter to Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church and archbishop of its Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.
“Most astonishing are the harsh disputes and divisions on various levels, whose contents, in addition, are unscrupulously spread through the media, disregarding the due respect towards the Church and towards the concerned persons,” laments the Vatican official, who has reiterated Pope Francis’ “affection and esteem” for the Syro-Malabar Church.
However, the controversies raging in the Church inflict “a severe wound to the Body of Christ” and threaten to harm not just the Syro-Malabar but the entire Church in India, says Cardinal Sandri’s August 29 letter, sent to Cardinal Alencherry a day before the Syro-Malabar concluded its synod.
The August 19-30 synod at the Church headquarters in Kochi was attended by 57 of 63 bishops from 35 Syro-Malabar dioceses spread over India and overseas.
Cardinal Sandri says he had met the Pope on August 27 to brief him about the synod decisions to resolve the controversies such as the election of Bishop Antony Kariyil as the vicar for the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese with “full powers” in the archdiocese’s administration, finances and pastoral ministry.
The Vatican official also informed Cardinal Alencherry that the Syro-Malabar Church could decide whether to make the post of archiepiscopal vicar permanent under its particular law and with Rome’s approval.
Cardinal Sandri also asked the head of the Syro-Malabar Church to publish his letter “contemporaneously with the provisions of the Synod” to appoint the bishops.
The Vatican official’s letter differs slightly with a press release issued by the Syro-Malabar Church’s Media Commission, especially regarding the powers of the new archiepiscopal vicar.
While media commission’s note says the new vicar has to consult Cardinal Alencherry on important matters regarding the archdiocese’s administration, the Vatican official’s letter says the newly appointed archbishop vicar has “full powers” with no mention of the need for consultation.