“Your holiness, this is the sin you are committing in India with Syro Malabar Church”

By Wimal MaryDas, USA

“ A church that doesn’t evolve is a church that goes backwards… That is a sin,” Pope Francis

“Your holiness, this is the sin you are committing in India with Syro Malabar Church”

The row over the liturgical crisis in Syro Malabar Church took its nasty turn as the metropolitan vicar of Ernakulam-Ankamaly archdiocese Mar. Antony Kariyil was asked to step down. Papal envoy of India air dashed in a hurry to Archbishop Karyil’s office in Ernakulam, and he forcefully insisted archbishop Kariyil tender the resignation letter. Within a few days after the resignation of archbishop Kariyil, a new administrator, Archbishop Thazath, was appointed to the archdiocese of Ernakulam. Indian Express, a leading newspaper in India, reports that Archbishop Kariyil was asked to resign for opposing uniform Holy Mass in the Syro Malabar Church.

New Administrator Mar. Andrews Thazath. He, claims that he will forcefully implement the traditionalist- agenda of Syro Malabar Synod against the wish of the people of God of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam.

While seeking resignation of Mar. Kariyil and new appointment ordeals in India, Pope Francis was visiting Canada and apologizing for the Catholic church’s role in abusing the indigenous people and their children. This apology of Pope Francis sparked a lot of criticism as the abuses were rampant and inhuman towards the indigenous people. While travelling back to Rome, Pope Francis spoke with journalists on a range of topics, and he said this on liturgy “ A church that doesn’t evolve is a church that goes backwards… That is a sin,”. While criticizing the traditionalist approach, Pope Francis was doing the opposite in India's Syro Malabar Church. He favours the traditionalist lobby of Syro Malabar Church on matters of the liturgy. Mar. Alenchery, current major archbishop of Syro Malabar Church, is facing many criminal charges in Indian courts and apparently manipulated the Vatican administration by seeking the resignation of Mar. Kariyil. Mar. Kariyil stood for the reforms in the Church and was a strong proponent of reforms in the liturgy. His stance irked the Syro Malabar church’s Synod, which has the brute majority of bishops autocratically enacted the traditionalist view of the uniform liturgy which is largely unacceptable to the faithful. The new Administrator Mar. Thazath, appointed by the Vatican, claims that he was appointed to execute the traditionalist views of the liturgy endorsed by the Syro Malabar Synod.

“ This is contradicting the message of Pope Francis… Pope Francis is either unaware of what is happening in the Syro Malabar Church or is talking about something and doing exactly the opposite. I have a lot of admiration for Pope Francis, but these acts of injustice appointing someone to bulldoze and destroy our age-old legacy of Holy Mass facing people is brutal and inhuman. I am so saddened by these acts of the Oriental Congregation, who probably manipulated the goodwill of Pope Francis. I can never accept Pope Francis's decision to push our liturgy backwards and confine it to the traditionalist- autocracy attitudes of the majority of bishops in India. I lost my faith, and one day I believe that another Pope, head of the Catholic Church, will come to India to apologize for what the corrupted oriental congregation is doing against us,” Mathew Chacko of St. Mary’s Basilica of Ernakulam in Kerala told.

Pope Francis told journalists on liturgy, “ Many people who call themselves traditionalists, they are not, they go backwards, that is a sin. Yes, exactly… your holiness, this is the sin you are committing in India with Syro Malabar Church. History will never forgive you for your omission to correct the corrupted administration of the Oriental congregation and its head, Cardinal Sadri. Your holiness, you fail to walk the talk with the Syro Malabar Church.

“ Tradition is the living faith for the dead instead; their attitude is the dead faith of the living” Your holiness, your action seeking the resignation of Mar. Kariyil, a trustworthy shepherd of the Syro Malabar Church, is counterproductive and destructive. Your holiness, you failed to walk the talk while appointing an autocratic administrator on Mar. Thazhath, in view of deposing the reforms- movements of liturgy in the Syro Malabar Church.