CV NEWS FEED // The Syro-Malabar Church has given its priests a new deadline to stop performing non-sanctioned forms of the Mass.
According to a document released on June 9, the Syro-Malabar Church in India will begin excommunicating priests, and barring them from priestly duties, if they fail to adopt the synod approved liturgy by July 3, an ultimatum which comes in wake of a longstanding schismatic movement in the Church there.
The synod-approved liturgical form of the Mass dictates that priests must face the altar during the consecration prayer rather than congregation, a controversial move that some members of the Syro-Malabar community have opposed over concerns related to “tradition, latinization, and modernity” according to a recent UBJ report.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil expressed in an interview following his appointment earlier this year that his central concern would be “to go after the lost sheep” and unite the Syro-Malabar Church over ongoing division regarding liturgical reforms.
UBJ notes in its report that the pastoral letter sent by Archbishop Thattil and Bishop Bosdo Puthur, apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, is directed mostly towards the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy, which is last among 34 Syro-Malabar dioceses to resist adopting the synod-approved Mass.
The document states that priests must send a written oath promising to only comply with the measure by the specified date, or face immediate excommunication. The document also states that those not in communion with Rome may not perform marriages, or oversee their former parish in any way.
Seminarians in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy are also required to submit a written declaration of compliance or be barred from ordination.
Pope Francis spoke out about the controversy in December 2023, telling members of the Syro-Malabar Church in a video message: “Please do not continue to wound the Body of Christ!”
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