Priests and the laity in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese are insisting on continuing with their traditional Mass in which the priest faces the congregation throughout as has been their practice since 1970 (Photo: AFP)
By UCA News reporter
Dec 1 2023
The liturgy row in India’s Eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Church has taken a serious turn with the Vatican-appointed apostolic administrator of an archdiocese refusing to ordain deacons unless they pledged to celebrate Mass facing the altar.
“I don’t know what to say except I am disappointed,” said one of the deacons.
The decision of Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, apostolic administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese in southern India, has put eight transitional deacons of the Archdiocese in a precarious situation, said the deacon, who did not want to be named.
“We are between the devil and the deep sea,” he told UCA News.
Thazhath, in a 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.”
“If we give such a written undertaking, we can be ordained priests. But that will not help us to celebrate Mass in our archdiocesan parishes as people are against the Synod-approved uniform mode of Mass,” the deacon said.
The issue results from a five-decade-old liturgical dispute in the Eastern Church with 5 million followers and 35 dioceses in India and abroad.
The Synod, the Church’s highest decision-making body decreed in August 2021 that priests in all its 34 dioceses celebrate the Mass in a uniform way 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.
Except for priests in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, other dioceses have adopted the uniform mode of Mass. Priests and the laity in the archdiocese, however, are insisting on continuing with their form of Mass, in which the priest faces the congregation throughout.
They say it has been their practice since 1970 and will not be changed.
Archbishop Thazhath, who is also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said his decision on priestly ordination follows “the directives of the Apostolic See, in the background of the special situation in the archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly.”
The Nov 23 letter was addressed to the archdiocesan curia, deacons, ordaining bishops, and major superiors of the religious congregations with deacons from the archdiocese.
Father Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the presbytery council in the archdiocese, disagreed with the apostolic administrator for suggesting arbitrary conditions.
“This is a new low of bargaining,” Mundadan said.
“It is not only inhuman but also against human rights,” Mundadan told UCA News on Nov 30.
Thazhath, 71, was appointed apostolic administrator on July 30, 2022, with a special mandate to settle the liturgical dispute.
However, his actions have “deepened the crisis,” say priests and lay leaders who demand his removal.
“We will not succumb to such pressure,” said Riju Kanjookaran, spokesperson of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency, which wants the traditional Mass.
“None of these tactics will have any bearing on our decision to continue with our traditional Mass,” he said.
The lay leader said believers will protest against Thazhath in all the eight parishes of the deacons on Dec 3 and will burn his letter to “pledge our support for the embattled deacons.”
The ongoing protest has seen clashes, burning of effigies, police cases, hunger strikes and the closure of St Mary’s Basilica in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese.
The Vatican earlier appointed Archbishop Cyril Vasil of Slovakia to settle the dispute. Archbishop Vasil, who arrived in Kerala on Aug 4, returned on Aug 23 without making any progress. – UCA News
