By Matters India Reporter
Kochi, March 17, 2022: A group of Catholics in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese has burned the effigies of two cardinals – one Vatican official and another the head of the Syro-Malabar Church.
A statement from the Almaya Munnetam (Laity front) March 17 said that no one would be allowed to impose anything in the archdiocese other than a fully congregation-facing Mass in the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
The statement issued by Binu John, convener of the laity front, and Riju Kanjookkaran, its spokesperson, said they have demanded the boycott of Cardinal George Alencherry, the major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church who insists on the synod Mass.
In the synod Mass the priest faces the congregation until the Eucharistic prayer, and then again from communion to the end of the Mass. From Eucharistic prayers until communion, the priest will face the altar.
What triggered the protests was the February 28 directive from Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, asserting that the decision of the Syro-Malabar Church’s synod has “the force of law everywhere in the world.”
The Vatican official also canceled a dispensation Archbishop Antony Kariyil, apostolic administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly had given to his parishes from following the synod’s uniform Mass.
Cardinal Alencherry on March 11 released the Vatican official’s letter to his people with a request to follow the synod Mass to end the five-decade-old dispute.
Trouble started in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese after the synod in August 2021 decided to implement a unified system of Mass celebration in all 35 dioceses. The synod gave the dioceses time until Easter, April 17, to fully implement the order.
The uniform Mass was adopted in 1999, but not all dioceses followed it, especially the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
The protesting laity group also extended their solidarity to the archdiocese’s priests who met on the same day under the leadership of Archbishop Kariyil. The priests demanded continuation of the current practice of offering Mass in the archdiocese.
As many as 316 priests of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, who met at Kaloor Renewal Centre in central Kochi, unanimously urged Archbishop Kariyil not to withdraw the dispensation he had given to archdiocese.
They also demanded that the Oriental Church should recognize the differences on Mass already existing in various dioceses.
“If the current dispensation is withdrawn, there will be serious problems in parishes,” warns a press note from the priests issued by their public relations officer Father Mathew kilukkan.
The priests suggested sending a delegation comprising priests and laity to appraise the apostolic nuncio in New Delhi about the current situation in the archdiocese. Another suggestion was that Archbishop Kariyil should personally meet with Pope Francis to explain the situation.
May I request the Indian Theological Association to step in and give the post-Vatican theological perspectives of celebrating the Eucharist as a community. – demolishing alters, priest and people being one community of faith to whom Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in my name I am in their midst, group masses, masses anywhere the people gather, concept of concelebration, round -octagonal -hexagonal church structures, Indian rite masses -etc. are part of these controversy. In fact it is conflict of people and not of faith.
How does the Syro-Malabar church consider itself above the ecclesiology of Vatican II? Or for that matter the practice of Jesus himself. At the Last Supper that we purport to commemorate at the Eucharist Jesus SAT AMONG his disciples in the EVENING! Unfortunately we have converted a deeply significant supper into a breakfast event. Perhaps we should also have the washing of the feet before each such commemoration. Why does this highly clericalized church conveniently ignore those aspects of the Last Supper that don’t suit it?
It is best that both forms of celebration be allowed across the entire Syro-Malabar Church rather than to allow friction between adherents of the two forms which, in effect, adversely affects the very unity of the Church itself.
Indeed, if the Vatican can allow those from the Anglican and other traditions converting to Roman Catholicism to retain their individual rite practices, why this hullabaloo over the mere prevalence of two forms within a given rite?
The sooner such pig-headery is done away with the better for the good of the Church Universal itself.