By Matters India Reporter
Kochi: All the 456 priests of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly have written to Pope Francis saying they want to continue to offer Mass facing people, a practice that the Syro-Malabar eparchy has followed for the past 50 years.
The memorandum was sent to the prefect of the Oriental Congregation in Rome and the apostolic nuncio in in India on August 10, as the Syro-Malabar Synod prepared to discuss Pope Francis’ letter on the controversial issue of liturgy.
The memorandum was also signed by some priests of religious congregations working in the Syro-Malabar archdiocese, a priest, who did not want to be named, told Matters India August 12.
The August 16-24 virtual synod is expected to decide the date to implement the uniform mode of celebrating Mass.
Pope Francis’s letter dated July 3 and made public three days later exhorts the clergy, religious and lay faithful to promptly implement the uniform mode for the greater good and unity of the Church.
The letter also said that Vatican regards implementing the code as an important step towards increasing stability and ecclesial communion in the Syro-Malabar Church.
The letter asked the bishops to persevere and confirm their ecclesial “walking together” with God’s people, trusting that “time is greater than space” and that “unity prevails over conflict.”
The Syro-Malabar Church dioceses follow two different modes of celebrating the Mass, in one the priest faces the churchgoers during the ceremony while in the other he faces the altar and the congregation.
The uniform mode asks the priest to face the faithful as well as the altar during the ceremony.
Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Oriental Catholic Church who convened the synod, has said the meeting would decide the date for implementing the uniform mode.
The cardinal’s July 7 letter thanked the Pope for recognizing the new ‘Raza Qurbana Taksa,’ a uniform mode of celebrating the Mass. The cardinal also forwarded the Pope’s “urging us to promptly implement the uniform mode of celebration of the Holy Qurbana as decided by the Synod held in November 1999.”
Father Kuriakose Mundadan, presbyteral council secretary of the archdiocese, says, “The mind of Pope Francis does not want to impose the uniform mode celebration in all eparchies.”
Imposing uniform “will definitely create conflict over unity,” Father Mundadan warns.
“If the bishops are walking together with the people like in the revision of the text in the Mass, the mode of celebration would have been discussed at the diocesan level, especially in eparchies where the Holy Mass is celebrated by facing the people for more than fifty years,” says the letter of appeal to the synod participants.
Father Mundadan says any mode of celebration of Mass other than facing the people will have drastic repercussions in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. “Our situation is not all ready for a 50-50 formula of celebrating the Mass. If the Synod is going to impose it, that will be the most imprudent action in the history of Syro Malabar Church,” he asserts.
A singular mode of celebrating Mass has been a bone of contention since the 1970s when the bishops began plans to renew and modernize the liturgy in line with the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. It led to open factionalism, with one group insisting on restoring the liturgy to its pristine purity while the other stressing renewal on modern lines.