Police in southern Indian Kerala state protecting Archbishop Cyril Vasil, the Pontifical Delegate appointed to find a solution to the protracted liturgical dispute in eastern rite Syro Malabar Church Aug. 14 as he tried to enter into St. Mary‘s cathedral of Ernakulam-Angamly archdiocese, the center of the dispute. (Photo: supplied)
Aug 17 2023
The decades-old liturgy dispute in India’s Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church has further vitiated with a section of Catholics deciding to demand the deportation of a Vatican emissary, who they say arrived without a proper mandate or papal delegation.
The controversy aggravated on Aug. 14 when a crowd of slogan-shouting Catholics attempted to prevent Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil from Slovakia, the pontifical delegate, from entering the St. Mary’s Cathedral of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, the center of the liturgical dispute.
Vasil, the pontifical delegate to the archdiocese, moved under heavy police protection amid shouts of “go back” slogans. The Catholics created a human wall in front of the main gate of the cathedral, preventing him from entering it.
Police then took him to the premises of the nearby Archbishop’s House, where they broke open “a small gate leading to the Cathedral. The police escorted him into the corridor of the Basilica, where he remained for some time. Later with the help of police, he entered the Basilica through a backdoor,” an eyewitness told UCA News on Aug. 15.
Vasil’s entry into the cathedral led to the pelting of rotten eggs, glass bottles and even stones to the Basilica premises.The police reportedly resorted to a mild baton charge.But no one is reported injured.
The cathedral has been closed since last December following the refusal of archdiocesan priests and lay people to accept the order of the Mass approved by the synod. They insist to continue with their five-decade-old liturgy, in which celebrants face people throughout the Mass.
The synod-approved Mass wants celebrants to face the altar during Eucharistic prayers, which the opposing group calls archaic and against the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.
Vasil landed in the city on Aug. 4 after the dispute pitched priests and laity of the archdiocese against the synod of bishops as several attempts to find a negotiated solution failed. However, Vasil came claiming that Pope Francis has delegated him to implement the synod-approved Mass
Deportation demanded
“The forced entry of Vasil, who claimed to be Pontifical Delegate, has further aggravated the situation in the archdiocese,” says Riju Kanjookaran, the spokesperson of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (AMT), the forum of archdiocesan priests and laity.
“We are now planning to write to the federal ministries of home and foreign affairs demanding immediate deportation of Archbishop Vasil, who is creating law and order problem in the country,” Kanjookaran told UCA News on Aug. 15.
“Archbishop Vasil is a foreigner and has no right to interfere in the domestic issues to the extent of creating a law and order problem,” said Kanjookaran, who also questioned Vasil’s claim of being a Pontifical Delegate.
“Neither Vatican nor the Apostolic Nunciature in India has released his appointment letter and its terms and conditions, but still he is given police protection and other facilities as is given to a diplomatic official from a foreign country,” the lay leader said.
Vasil issued a pastoral letter soon after his arrival saying that his mandate is to implement the Synod-approved uniform.
Kanjookaran said they welcomed the delegate hoping that he will become a mediator to work out a lasting solution to the more than five-decades-old dispute.
Vasil held meetings with both sides until Aug. 7. However, on Aug. 8 representatives of the priests and laity of the archdiocese told him that they will not collaborate with him as he was not acting like the representative of Pope Francis, but as an agent of Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, the Vatican-appointed apostolic administrator of the archdiocese.
They, however, agreed to resume talk with Vasil provided he, the Apostolic Nunciature in India, or the Vatican released his appointment letter with its terms and conditions. But until now no such appointment letters have been released.
‘One-sided decision opposed’
The Vatican News on Aug. 10 said Pope Francis appointed him as Pontifical Delegate with special faculties “to resolve the situation of the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly.”
Vasil’s task will be to “ensure the implementation of the liturgical reform approved by the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Archiepiscopal Church,” the Vatican News said quoting a statement of the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Eastern Churches.
The undated and unsigned statement from the Dicastery of Eastern Churches, also said Vasil arrived in India on Aug. 4, indicating that it was issued after he arrived in India.
The protest leaders say they want a negotiated solution, not the implementation of a one-sided decision.
“We all hoped the Pontifical Delegate would listen to us and find a lasting solution to the crisis with mutual trust,” said Father Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the archdiocesan presbyteral council.
“Archbishop Vasil instead of solving the problem, is trying to aggravate it. Is he really a Pontifical Delegate, we wonder,” Mundadan told UCA News on Aug. 15.
The priest also claimed to have written to Apostolic Nunciature in India with an appeal to “reign in” Vasil before he creates more problems.
He said of the 470 priests serving the archdiocese, barring just 13, all others are “opposed to Synod-approved Mass.”
Similarly, of the 328 parishes, 320 have passed resolutions opposing the synod-approved Mass. These documents have been handed over to the Oriental Congregation and also the Syro-Malabar Synod, Mundadan said.
The Kerala-based Church has some 5 million Catholics and some 500,000 of them are in the archdiocese. – UCA News
