By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, Jan 11, 2023: The election of Bishop Raphael Thattil as the Syro-Malabar Church leader has brought high hopes for its members, especially the Catholics in the troubled Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.

“I am sure he will listen to the sane voices on the controversies concerning the Syro-Malabar Church,” says Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, former editor of Indian Currents weekly who sees in the new major archbishop “a good shepherd with the smell of the sheep” as he was always seen with the people in the peripheries.

Father Mathew, a member of the Syro-Malabar Church now based in the northern Indian state of Punjab, says the new major archbishop’s success as an administrator will “depend on his capacity to accommodate diversities. His pastoral experience in the mission will be an added asset to him.”

Among those welcoming the new major archbishop are the Almaya Munnetam (laity front) and the Archdiocesan Protection Committee of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.

“The faithful and priests of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese are looking forward to the new Major Archbishop with hope,” says Riju Kanjookaren, spokesperson of the laity front that is involved in the liturgical dispute, a vexing problem for the larger of the two Oriental Catholic rites in India.

A statement from the laity front sees “a pointer to the future” in the new major archbishop’s opening statement that the Church is not only for bishops, but for everyone – the faithful, priests and the religious.

“The entire Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese listened with great hope to the new leader’s explanation that synodality is walking with and listening to the faithful and priests. “We also felt assured when he said he would continue to be the same priest and the bishop we are familiar with,” the statement added.

Therefore, the laity front expects the new leader to resolve the problems in the archdiocese, as a first priority after his installation on January 11.

One of the lay group’s demands is to open the archdiocese’s main church — St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica — that has remained closed since November 30, 2022 because of the liturgy dispute.

At the same time, the laity group asserts that the leadership change in the Church will not affect the archdiocese’s stand on the liturgy. “Our fight for justice and transparency will continue,” said the statement.

The group regretted that the Syro-Malabar Church’s “biggest tragedy” in the past was the absence of leaders who would listen to the believers.

Meanwhile, the Archdiocesan Protection Committee says it looks up to the new leader with much hope.

The new major archbishop “is always friendly with priests and people” and a believer in dialogue, says a statement issued by Father Fr. Jose Vailikodath, the committee’s public relations officer.

These qualities will help the new leader to understand and analyze the current situation in the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, it says.

The committee also said the faithful and priests of the archdiocese will cooperate with the major archbishop depending on his ability to solve all its problems.,

It regretted that those in power since 2017 had adopted the power-induced arrogance and vested interests instead of a pastoral approach. They violated the canon law and ignored the Second Vatican Council that taught the Church is the people of God.

The committee also accused those leaders of misruling the archdiocese by sidelining canonical councils and misleading the Pope and the Congregation for the Eastern Churches.

Instead of listening with a spirit of synodality to the legitimate grievances of the priests, religious and laity in the archdiocese, those leaders resorted to an autocratic rule, the committee said.

It wants the new leader to find a solution to the archdiocese’s suffering, both spiritual and material.

Urgent attention should be paid to stop the synod Mass, open the minor seminary and the cathedral and ordain deacons.

“If his pastoral mission continues in this direction, the cooperation of the people of God will be with Major Archbishop Thattil,” the committee said.