India's Syro-Malabar Catholic Church begins synod amid liturgy row

ERNAKULAM, India (OSV News) -- A crucial meeting of the India-based Eastern Catholic Syro-Malabar Church's synod of bishops began amid a simmering decades-old liturgy dispute over the rubrics of Mass.

Some 54 active and retired bishops are attending the Jan. 6-11 meeting at Mount St. Thomas, the headquarters of the crisis-ridden church in southern Kerala state.

"The bishops will discuss all important issues that affect the church and the society at large," Father Antony Vadakkekara, spokesperson for the Syro-Malabar Church, told UCA News Jan. 6.

The Vincentian priest, however, refused to divulge specific details of the agenda, saying, "We don't generally disclose the agenda of the meeting in advance."

The synod, the highest decision-making body of the local church, assumes significance as a majority of priests and laity in the Syro-Malabar Church's Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly have rejected the official liturgy, in which the celebrant faces the altar during the Eucharistic prayer.

They want to continue with their traditional Mass, during which the celebrant faces the congregation throughout.

The Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly has more than half a million Catholics and is also the seat of the church's head, Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil.

The warring priests and laity also continue to boycott Bishop Bosco Puthur, the apostolic administrator, and members of his curia following the breakdown of a truce reached in July 2024.

Father Vadakkekara evaded a question on whether the bishops would hold fresh talks with the priests and laity in the troubled archdiocese.

A church official, however, confirmed that the priests and lay leaders informed a couple of bishops that "there will not be any compromise on our stand."

"We have been informed that the apostolic administrator and his curia should honor the July 2024 agreement," an archdiocesan official who did not want to be named told UCA News Jan. 6.

According to the July agreement, the priests and the laity agreed to celebrate one Mass following the official rubrics on Sundays and other feast days in every parish. During the official liturgy, the celebrant faces the altar during the Eucharistic prayer.

However, the peace pact was breached in October after Bishop Puthur insisted that deacons give a written statement that they would only celebrate the official Mass after their priestly ordination.

The church leader said, "Any attempt to force upon us the synod Mass will not be accepted. ... The boycott will continue, and no orders would be acceptable."

The deacons who were ordained after they gave a written statement, as Bishop Puthur demanded, were not allowed by parishioners to celebrate Mass in their home parishes.

The decades-old liturgy dispute further deepened Dec. 3, when parishioners blocked the entry of newly appointed priest administrators at three parishes.

The parishioners gathered outside the main gates of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. They did not allow the administrators, appointed by Bishop Puthur, to enter the church premises.

They also shouted slogans against the apostolic administrator, accusing him of creating fresh unrest during the Advent season by appointing administrators over parish priests.

The priests and laity further stepped up their defiance when four priests whom Bishop Puthur debarred from parish ministry concelebrated Mass with other priests in their parishes.

Hundreds of Catholics and scores of priests joined the debarred priests.

The defiant actions began Dec. 20, two days after Bishop Puthur initiated the disciplinary action for disobeying a church decree to follow the official Mass in their parishes.

The four priests defied his order and continued to run the parishes with the support of the laypeople. They also filed cases in a local court challenging the arbitrary action.

"Our stand is clear. Suppose the synod wants a lasting solution to the liturgy dispute. In that case, it should honor the July agreement," said Riju Kanjookaran, spokesperson of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency, a body of priests, religious and laity leading the protest in support of their traditional Mass.

The priests and laity have also announced a three-day hunger strike Jan. 7-9. It will be held on the roadside close to the St. Mary's Syro-Malabar Cathedral Basilica in Ernakulam district. Father Joyce Kaithakottil, one of the rebel priests, will lead the hunger strike, concluding with a protest in front of the church.

The Syro-Malabar is the second-largest Eastern Catholic Church. It has 5 million followers spread over 35 dioceses in India and abroad.

Though the liturgy dispute is over five decades old except for the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, other dioceses have adopted the synod-approved official Mass since November 2021.

The protracted dispute has seen clashes, hunger strikes, the burning of effigies, police cases and the closure of St. Mary's Cathedral in Ernakulam.