The leaders of the Syro-Malabar Church insisted the priestly ordination of eight deacons would go ahead despite renewed disputes over the liturgy in their diocese.
A spokesman for the Church, Fr Anthony Vadakkekra, said the ordinations would take place on 4 November in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly’s Sacred Heart Minor Seminary, in southern Kerala.
The deacons, like other clergy in the archeparchy, had opposed the reformed “uniform mode” of the Syro-Malabar liturgy, leading to threats that the hierarchy would block their ordination.
“We were waiting for the deacons to sign the agreement,” said Fr Vadakkekra, referring to a compromise whereby clergy undertook to celebrate a minimum of liturgies in the uniform mode. He denied allegations that the Synod of Bishops, the supreme authority of the Eastern-rite Church, had reneged on its commitment to ordain the deacons.
Last November Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, then the apostolic administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly, asked candidates for the priesthood to make a written promise to celebrate the Holy Qurbana – the Syro-Malabar Mass – in the “uniform mode”, to allow their ordinations to go ahead.
However, Riju Kanjookaran, spokesperson of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency which opposes the uniform rite, said this “was only a stop-gap arrangement for the ordination [meaning] that the newly ordained would celebrate only private Mass thereafter till the liturgy issue is resolved”.
In the uniform mode, the priest faces ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Priests in Ernakulam-Angamaly maintained an entirely versus populum celebration under a dispensation until 2021, when the synod made the uniform mode mandatory in all 35 Syro-Malabar dioceses across the world.
This provoked protests and sometimes violent clashes, paralysing the archeparchy until a compromise in July this year under which priests were permitted to maintain the versus populum liturgy provided they celebrated one Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation in the uniform mode.
However, the continued delays to ordinations has threatened to upset this settlement, leading to public protests in the archeparchy on 13 October.
A prominent member of the archeparchy, who opposed the uniform rite and did not want to be named, said the delay of ordinations originally schedule for December 2023 was frustrating for the deacons who have undergone 12 years of formation, leading some to consider “alternative vocations”. Most of their contemporaries in other dioceses have been ordained.
Clergy in the Ernakulam-Angamaly, represented by the archdiocesan presbytery council, have also criticised Bishop Bosco Puthur, the apostolic administrator appointed to replace the unpopular Thazath. They called for his appointments to the diocesan curia to be cancelled for violating canon law.
On 17 October, Mgr Varghese Njaliath filed a “revoke petition” against curial appointments including that of Fr Joshi Puthuva, the chancellor of the archdiocese.
Fr Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the presbytery council, said Puthuva, was “involved in a land scam and is on parole”. The petition also claimed Fr Simon Pallupetta, the new finance officer, and Fr Jacob Palakkapilly, appointed as protosyncellus (or vicar general), lacked suitable qualifications.
Bishop Puthur announced his changes to the diocesan curia on 9 October “without consulting” clergy, after all its members resigned, said Father Mundadan.
However, Fr Vadakkekra denied that the appointments were in breach of canon law, accusing the clergy of trying to create “an issue” of them. “The curia members are well qualified to hold the posts assigned,” he said.
“As for Fr Puthuva, his name was also linked to the land scam in which Cardinal George Allencherry was accused and the trial is on. But investigations have proved that there was ‘no misappropriation of funds’ and that a lower court has found no wrong doing on the part of the duo. Neither is Fr Puthuva on bail.”
A number of parishes have stopped delivering financial contributions to the diocese amid the dispute. Fr Mundadan said the archeparchy’s parishes would not fund the curia until Puthur revoked his appointments.
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