Dramatic weekend events lead to temporary truce in troubled archdiocese in India

Catholic priests in a troubled Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic archdiocese have called off a four-day protest after an assurance of dialogue to resolve their demands amid a decades-old liturgy dispute on the rubrics of Mass.

The temporary truce within the Syro-Malabar Church, based in southern Kerala state, was reached Jan. 13 after a dramatic weekend of turbulence, which included police involvement and rebel priests ending up with injuries, followed by protests of angry faithful and other priests and religious.

The protesting priests were hoping for a settlement of the liturgy dispute at the synod of bishops, which was held from Jan. 6 to 11.

The disagreement stems from a 2021 synod decision mandating a uniform style of Mass, where the celebrant faces the altar during the eucharistic prayer, which has been met with resistance in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, where the faithful want to continue with their traditional Mass, during which the celebrant faces the congregation throughout.

On Jan. 9, some 21 priests entered Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil’s house to press their demands. However, the police evicted them Jan. 11 and moved them to the adjacent compound of St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica.

“The protest was called off after the new vicar, Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry, agreed to consider our demands and hold a dialogue to resolve them,” said Father Kuriakose Mundadan, the presbytery council secretary of the troubled Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

Archbishop Pamplany was appointed vicar of Ernakulam-Angamaly by Major Archbishop Thattil, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, at the just concluded synod. Archbishop Pamplany has headed the Tellicherry Archdiocese since Jan. 15, 2022.

Nearly 12 priests sustained injuries, including fractures, in the police action, leading to public protests by priests, nuns and laypeople in the archdiocese on Jan. 12.

“They demanded action against police officials for their barbaric actions,” Father Mundadan told UCA News Jan. 13.

When the situation escalated, the district’s top government official, known as the district collector, convened a meeting with church officials and the protesters late on Jan. 12.

Church authorities assigned Father Jacob G. Palakkappilly, to date vicar general of Ernakulam-Angamaly, to attend the meeting, but the protesters refused to speak to him, saying he did not have the mandate to make a decision. Instead, they insisted on holding talks in the presence of Archbishop Pamplany.

The district collector contacted Archbishop Pamplany, who was traveling but was asked to abort his journey. He joined the talks around 10:30 p.m.

The discussions continued until 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 13, when Archbishop Pamplany agreed in writing to consider the protesting priests’ demands, which included setting up canonical bodies in the archdiocese, considering the appointment of new curia and halting all disciplinary actions initiated against them.

The prelate also agreed to begin a dialogue with the priests and lay leaders regarding all the pending issues, including the liturgy dispute, starting Jan. 20.

Father Antony Vadakkekara, the Syro-Malabar Church’s spokesperson, confirmed that a temporary truce had been reached at the meeting.

“The protest is called off, and dialogue will be held to resolve all pending issues in the archdiocese,” the Vincentian priest told UCA News.

Archbishop Pamplany’s appointment as vicar was announced after the resignation of Bishop Bosco Puthur, who had run the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese as its apostolic administrator since December 2023.

The priests and laity boycotted Bishop Puthur and his curia as differences widened over the liturgy dispute in the last year.

An official release said the archdiocese will continue to be controlled by the pontifical delegate, Archbishop Cyril Vasil.

Archbishop Vasil is a Slovak Jesuit who has served as eparch of Košice in the Slovak Greek Catholic Church since June 2021.

“The prelate (Archbishop Pamplany) has assured us that the archbishop’s house will be opened to the general public before Jan. 20 and a police presence there will be withdrawn,” said Riju Kanjookaran, spokesperson for the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency, a body of priests, religious and laity which is spearheading the protest against the synod-approved uniform mode of Mass.

The archdiocese is the seat of power of the head of the Syro-Malabar Church’s and the church’s biggest diocese, with close to 10% of the church’s over 5 million followers worldwide.

The synod in 2021 told its 35 dioceses in India and abroad to adopt the synod-approved Mass for more uniformity in the church and ordered them to comply beginning in November of that year.

All but the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly complied with the order after some initial protests. The archdiocese’s warring priests and laity continue to defy the synod decree.

This report was written and published originally in UCA News, an independent Catholic news service covering East, South and Southeast Asia. OSV News contributed to this report.