By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, December 6, 2023: Will heads roll in the Syro-Malabar Church? ask media groups in Kerala after Apostolic Nuncio to India Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli air-dashed to Kochi to meet with the head of the Oriental Catholic Church.
Some others wonder whether the nuncio-Cardinal George Alencherry meeting was in preparation for raising India’s Oriental rite to the status of a Patriarchal Church.
These speculations rose after the nuncio reportedly met the cardinal for 45 minutes on December 5 at the Kochi airport. Archbishop Girelli, who arrived at the Kochi airport from New Delhi at 9 am, took the return flight two hours later without stepping out of the airport, according to media reports.
The nuncio has apparently given the cardinal two letters, presumably from the Vatican.
Neither the Syro-Malabar Church based in Kochi nor the apostolic nunciature in New Delhi has said anything about the meeting so far, leading to speculations in the media in the southern Indian state.
Some speculate that the Vatican will raise the Syro-Malabar Church as a patriarchal Church.
On December 7, the Church’s public relations officer Vincentian Father Antony Vadakkekara announced a press conference at 4:30 pm at Mount St. Thomas, Kakkanad, a suburb of Kochi and the head office of the Syro-Malabar Sabha.
“You should also join this press conference to announce some important things related to the Church,” a press statement says.
The nuncio’s visit has taken place as the leaders of the Syro-Malabar Church are caught in a bitter feud with most priests and lay people of its largest diocese – Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese- over liturgy, reports the Mathrubhumi, a leading newspaper in Kerala.
The nuncio’s visit has spawned speculations and rumors among the Church circles, says the Malayala Manorama, another paper.
The “Mathrubhumi” newspaper speculated that the Vatican would appoint a bishop with independent charge over the archdiocese. It also reported quoted unconfirmed sources that Archbishop Thazhath had indicated his willingness to step down as the apostolic administrator.
Others wonder if the nuncio’s sudden visit would lead to the resignations of Cardinal Alencherry as the Oriental Catholic Church’s Major Archbishop, while others speculate that the Vatican would remove Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the apostolic administrator of the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.
Cardinal Alencherry stands accused of illegally selling some plots of land of the archdiocese. The 78-year-old cardinal was granted bail in the case. The Vatican had removed him from the administration of the archdiocese and appointed an apostolic administrator.
Church observers point out that the nuncio-cardinal meeting has taken place nearly two weeks after Archbishop Thazhath courted controversy by setting terms for ordaining eight deacons in the archdiocese.
His November 23 letter, addressed to the archdiocesan curia, deacons, ordaining bishops, and major superiors of the religious congregations, insisted that all the deacons in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese to sign an oath prior to their ordination to priesthood.
The letter said the deacons “can be permitted to be ordained priests only when they make the undertaking” that they will “celebrate Syro-Malabar Holy Qurbana as per the Synodal decision on the uniform mode of celebration.”
The oath reads: “I will celebrate Holy Qurbana only as per the Synodal decision on the uniform mode of celebration and I will not celebrate illicitly against the Synodal decision,” the oath states. “I am aware of the disciplinary sanctions, including suspension/dismissal from priestly ministry in case I disobey the above-mentioned directives of my ecclesiastical authorities.”
Archbishop Thazhath said his decision was in line with “the directives of the Apostolic See, in the background of the special situation in the archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly.”
The deacons have reportedly refused to sign the undertaking while many others say the archbishop was being “mean” and “vengeful” as he could not implement the synod Mass in the archdiocese, despite resorting to various tactics.
The Vatican appointed Archbishop Thazhath as the apostolic administrator on July 30, 2022, replacing Archbishop Antony Kariyil, who had taken over from Cardinal Alencherry the archdiocese’s administration.
However, Kariyil was forced to resign by the nuncio, who made an earlier sudden visit to Kerala on July 25, 2022. Kariyil was blamed for his failure to implement the uniform mode of celebrating Mass in the archdiocese.
Even the new administrator too could not implement the Synod decision as most priests and the people in the archdiocese stood their ground.
The controversy results from a five-decade-old liturgical dispute in the Syro-Malabar Church that has 5.5 million followers and 35 dioceses in India and abroad.
The Syro-Malabar Synod decreed in August 2021 that priests in all its dioceses uniformly celebrate the Mass to help unity in the Church.
It wanted celebrants to turn to the altar during the Eucharistic prayer and face the people during the start and concluding portions.
However, the priests in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese insisted on continuing with their form of Mass, in which the priest faces the congregation throughout, a practice they have followed since 1970, following the Vatican 11 teachings.
Almaya Munnettam, the lay people’s group in the archdiocese, accused Archbishop Thazhath of trying to create unrest in parishes after they thwarted his attempts to impose the synod Mass.
A stand-off between the archbishop supporters and others led to the closure of the archdiocese’s main church, St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica, on the first Sunday of Advent in 2022.
As the stalemate continued, the Vatican sent Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil as the Pope’s delegate to help resolve the dispute.
The delegate, who arrived in Kerala on August 4, said he had come to implement the synod Mass. He ordered the dissenting clergy to offer the synod Mass in all parishes or face excommunication by August 20, triggering criticism from people such as Father George Pattery, former president of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia.
Archbishop Vasil “seems to weaponize the Eucharist with his latest warning on the Syro-Malabar liturgy under the guise of obedience,” Father Pattery lamented
The Jesuit priest had urged the papal delegate to employ Jesuit expertise on discernment to help the Syro-Malabar Church discover true synodality and, if needed, revise its earlier decisions on liturgy.
Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a laywoman theologian in Mumbai, too, expressing shock at the papal delegate’s threat, asked, “What kind of Church is this??
“Child abusers and rapists are not excommunicated but those who are fighting a rubric that requires them to have their backs to the congregation during the Eucharistic celebration, are being threatened with excommunication. Such a threat is not only unjust but trivializes the very meaning of being a Christian,” Lobo asserted.