By Matters India Reporter
Kochi, Oct 4, 2022: The Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly continues to faces crisis after its apostolic administrator revoked a dispensation given to it to continue with the traditional Mass and ordered its priests to follow the Synod Mass with immediate effect.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the apostolic administrator, in a circular issued on September 30 directed the priests of the Syro-Malabar archdiocese in the southern Indian state of Kerala to begin offering synod Mass and annulled the dispensation given by his predecessor Archbishop Antony Kariyil.
Soon after the announcement Archbishop Thazhath left the residence of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archbishop for own Trichur archdiocese in a taxi car leaving the official vehicle behind.
The prelate in a presbytery meeting insisted that the priest should offer Mass as directed by the Church’s Synod instead of the traditional style being used in the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
“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.
The prelate also attended the meeting of the newly constituted curia after the presbytery meet and from where a contingent of police personnel including females escorted the archbishop out of the Archbishop’s House.
The prelate boarded the taxi waiting for him in front of the Archbishop’s House.
A group of laypeople present inside the Archbishop’s House shouted slogans demanding Archbishop Thazhath’s resignation as he was being escorted to the vehicle parked outside.
Archbishop Thazhath wants the priests in the archdiocese to read his circular in all churches in the archdiocese on October 9 but the priests refused to comply with it and said they would burn it in all parishes.
The prelate also dismissed the popular demand from the priests and laity to accept their traditional Mass as a liturgy variant in the circular apparently asking more than 550,000 believers to fall in line.
The sudden move from the administrator has irked the believers and the priests in the archdiocese who vowed to continue with the traditional Mass in which the celebrant faces the congregation throughout.
The Synod wants the priest to face the people in the beginning and at the end of the Mass and face the altar from the time of offertory.
Upset laypeople on October 1 burnt the copies of the circular in front of the Archbishop’s house and the following day threw its copies into the pubic dustbin as a mark of protest. They also asserted that they would not allow Synod Mass in any of the churches in the archdiocese.
They accused the administrator of betraying them and misleading the Vatican. The laypeople also said they would not allow Archbishop Thazhath to enter Ernakulam Archbishop’s House again.
The Mass dispute in the Syro-Malabar Church is nearly five decades old, however, there was harmony until August 2021 when the synod of the Syro-Malabar Church decided to implement its 1999 decision for uniformity in the liturgy.
The synod presented it as a compromise formula for bringing unity among the community members and ordered its 35 dioceses to comply with it with effect from November 2021.
As per the new arrangement, the celebrant would face the congregation until the Eucharistic prayer, and then turn toward the altar until the communion, after which he would again face the faithful.
Barring Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese other dioceses followed the Synod Mass after initial opposition from a few dioceses including the Archdiocese of Trichur headed by Archbishop Thazhath.
The Vatican on July 30 appointed Archbishop Thazhath who successfully crushed the rebellion from his priests against the Synod Mass, as apostolic administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese with a task to implement synod Mass and solve other issues plaguing the archdiocese.
The then metropolitan vicar Archbishop Antony Kariyil was forced to resign from the office after he refused to comply with the synod order and gave dispensation to the entire archdiocese from following the synod Mass.
Archbishop Kariyil was forced to give dispensation to the archdiocese after his priests and laity started indefinite hunger strike and other protests against the synod Mass.
Archbishop Thazhath, explaining his position in the circular, said, he complied with the order of the Vatican as “I had no other option left.”
The prelate also added, although he had revoked the dispensation given to the archdiocese, parish priests can approach for such dispensation in case of emergency situation.
Riju Kanjookkaran, the spokesperson of Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency, told Matters India October 4 that “the faithful and priests in the archdiocese do not want synod Mass.”
Kanjookkaran also added that 315 parishes in the archdiocese passed resolutions in support of traditional Mass and handed them over to Archbishop Thazhath, but he misled the Vatican and now imposing Synod Mass.”
Besides the people, more than 400 priests serving in the archdiocese supported the people’s sentiments and appealed to the Vatican to allow them to celebrate traditional Mass, Kanjookkaran said.
When more than 99 percent of the faithful and the priests in the archdiocese want to follow their tradition why should anybody have any problem? he asked. “We will allow only our traditional Mass in our churches,” he asserted.
Be stubborn, and enjoy the division!
What is this cheap politics by the few defiant Priests by misleading innocent people.? Are they above the Supreme Pontiff the Pope? Throw them out without any further delay and save the Catholic Church please.
Such “disobedient” Priests should have no place in the Church!
O tempora!!
O mores!!
O Syro Mlabar Church!!
When are you going to be open to Reality ” Unity in pluriformity”
And not: ” Unity in UNIFORMITY” ?
That you have been shouting on rooftops to Latin Dioceses !!
Liturgy – for what? To unite people or to divide them?
It is a real shame on the Christian churches that are dividing the people in the name of Liturgy!
What the heck! Why not let the status quo continue whereby those dioceses or parishes following a particular for of Eucharistic celebration be allowed to retain it? The Latin Rite already has the Celebrant facing the congregation right through the Mass. So if some of the Oriental Rite have been following a similar practice, what is wrong with it? The Church Universal seems to be getting herself tied in knots on the issue for no valid reason whatsoever. Time those in authority did a little bit of thinking and deep reflection on such matters.
The Gospel according to John, chapter 17, has nothing to do with the unity or uniformity in liturgical worship or unity in ecclesiastical administration. Rather, John, chapter 17 specifically highlights the unity among Christians and catholics. The unity of personal relationships is basic, fundamental and significant for all disciples of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the Synod of Syro Malabar Church, instead of strengthening and emphasizing unity among all parishioners, especially of the diocese of Ernakulam, is ruining and destroying the existing unity among the faithful of Jesus Christ, in the name of uniformity in the liturgical worship. The urgent need of the hour is, that Synod of Syro Malabar Church honestly and impartially, undergoes a deep personal conversion and self transformation from within, through self criticism, self examination and self purification.
Most of the faithful Laity are for the synod approved unified Holy Mass. But unlike the unsynodol priests and Laity, the faithful Laity is unaggressive and silent. They are praying and hoping that the matter would settle in due course. In Ernakulam city, the faithful Laity, some of whom I spoke to said that if it is congregation facing Mass they will go to Latin churches, for, there is a Latin church near every Syro Malabar church in Ernakulam city.
What is “traditional Mass”? The Eucharistic celebration has evolved over the centuries in both the eastern and western churches. Faith, like love, can never be static. It must continue to evolve.
Vatican II realised that over the centuries several traditions had subsumed the gospel values and called for a return to the roots..
At the Last Supper Jesus SAT AMONG his disciples, washed their feet and broke bread. A clericaly controlled church has cunningly retained the bread, but not the washing. Both are integral to the Eucharist.
Today’s liturgy is a far cry from what Jesus instituted.