Pope Francis on Wednesday confirmed a recent leader for India’s Syro-Malabar Church in a step toward healing a decades-long liturgical dispute that became so dire that Francis recently threatened to excommunicate a whole bunch of priests.
Francis confirmed the election of His Beatitude Mar Raphael Thattil as major archbishop of the arch-eparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, situated in southern Kerala state where a lot of India’s Christians live.
Thattil had been elected to the position by the synod of bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church, certainly one of the 23 autonomous eastern rite churches in communion with the Holy See. Francis confirmed the selection as called for under church law.
Thattil’s appointment opens a recent chapter for the church, which has been badly divided by a dispute over the celebration of the liturgy. In 1999, the church’s synod decided to adopt a compromise, unified liturgy but a lot of the estimated 460 priests in Ernakulam-Angamaly refused.
Francis for years has urged them to comply and over the summer appointed a private envoy, the Slovak Jesuit Archbishop Cyril Vasil, to attempt to help resolve the standoff.
Tensions got here to a head on Dec. 7, when Francis issued a videotaped warning to the dissident priests that they risked excommunication in the event that they didn’t conform by Christmas and have a good time the unified liturgy.
“In the name of the Lord, for the spiritual good of your church, of our church, I ask you to heal this rupture,” Francis begged them within the video. “It is your church, it’s our church. Re-establish communion, remain within the Catholic Church!”
That same day, Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal George Alencherry, whom Thattil now replaces.
According to Rome-based prelates aware of the Indian church, many, if not most, of the priests celebrated Christmas in line with the compromise formula, which involves the priest facing the congregation for a part of the service and the altar for the Eucharistic prayer.
Francis made no mention of the dispute in a letter to Thattil that accompanied the announcement of his appointment Wednesday, though the pontiff said he was praying for unity.
“May the Holy Spirit foster the unity, fidelity and mission of the Syro-Malabar Church, in order that it might grow and flourish under your paternal guidance,” Francis wrote.
Thattil is thought to have accepted the unified liturgy and in a few of his first comments after his election, said, “We are together and we work together,” in line with the AsiaNews missionary news agency, which has followed the dispute closely.
There are around 20 million Catholics in India, with most belonging to the Latin rite Roman Catholic Church. The Syro-Malabar Church is the most important eastern rite Catholic church in communion with Rome after the Ukrainian Church.
It counts some 5 million believers, most in India but in addition in communities within the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia, in line with the church’s website.
