Row over uniform mode of worship in Syro-Malabar Church deepens

KOCHI

Apostolic Administrator of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese Mar Andrews Thazath walked out of a presbyteral council meeting held here on Thursday. He was escorted out by the police even as a section of laity raised slogans against him.

This comes in the backdrop of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (AMT), a combine of priests and religious and lay people of the archdiocese asserting yet again that it remained firm in its decision to oppose any mode of mass that contravened the belief of priests and laity.

The priests who attended Thursday’s meeting had requested the archbishop to report back to the Vatican the demand to declare a liturgical variant for the archdiocese, following which the Archbishop walked out of the meeting.

A new presbyteral council assumed office on the day, with Father Kuriakose Mundadan getting elected again as secretary.

Meanwhile, the Institution of the Roman Curia had in a letter dated September 20 sought an end to confusion over the uniform mode of mass in the Syro-Malabar Church and called upon bishops, priests, and the laity to comply with the Synodal decision. A liturgical variant for the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly (Archdiocese) is therefore excluded, it said and exhorted Mar Thazath to implement the Synodal decision without further delay and to report back, it said.