Pope Francis has given a message to the Syro-Malabar Church on May 13 of 2024.There are significant hermeneutic dimensions in the message. Why did the Pope address it to a group of Syro-Malabar Catholics? The Message was not addressed to a group of bishops or priests.
1. It was a message to a particular church. Very significantly it was not addressed to any diocese of that particular church. Some news reporters thought it was a message addressed to the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese. There was no mention of that name anywhere. The Pope, as man of Synodality, preferred to offer an official teaching to the particular church. So, the teaching authority is one which not only speaks to the People of God, but also listens to this People, through whom Christ continues His teaching. Pope Francis was not a one-way speaker. He was ready to listen to some lay people of our Church. Priests and bishops are there for the church. We have to further rediscover the co-responsibility that comes from baptismal dignity and equality. Is this mutual respect visible in this particular church?
2. The one issue that is rocking the church is that of “arguing about the details of how to celebrate the Eucharist”, which the Pope thinks is “incompatible with the Christian faith.” Everyone knows he is referring to the 50-50 formula that the Syro Malabar Synod created to enforce uniformity of orientation of the Eucharistic liturgy. Who brought up this issue in the church in the first place? And what for? The Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly has repeatedly made it clear that this ritual issue is not an issue of compulsion at all. The Pope himself has said “Uniformity is not Catholic; it is not even Christian. Rather, unity in diversity” (October,31, 2014). What for then has the Synod created such an issue? And the Pope tells the church, “This requires us to do a self-examination of our dedication to unity and our faithful.”
3. So the Pope’s message is clear: “I wish to help you, not supersede you, because the nature of your Church sui iuris empowers you not only to examine carefully the situations and challenges that you face, but also to take appropriate steps to address them, with responsibility and evangelical courage.” It is good to remember that in the same meeting of the Synod that decided this issue, the Nuncio had clearly told the bishops not to destroy unity in the name of uniformity.
4. We are sorry to confess there was disobedience in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, but why did it occur and what for. Has there been any attempt to hear the people who resisted? Pope Francis’s video message and letter were not honoured. How were these written and video messages obtained? The Pope is pained: “Where there is disobedience, there is schism.” And so was the archdiocese. We have made known our pain and hurt to the Pope. It may be noted that all disobedience need not become schism. The resistance against Humanae Vitae and against the recent non-liturgical blessing to homosexual or lesbian unions have not led to any schism.
5. All these things concern the entire Syro-Malabar Church and not just some “defiant priests”, as the Synod prefers to call them. When the Archdiocese was persecuted, harassed and pressurised, the rest of the church were simple nonpartisan onlookers. We stood for moral integrity and honest ways. We are not ready to whitewash history. After the Second World War, the German people came to a situation where they could not mourn because of their active as well as passive participation in the Nazi regime. Their national tradition carries something, mighty and threatening, which is their moral ruin by submission, a sort moral compromise to power. It is only the generals and provincials of the religious congregations of this church who rose to the occasion. We painfully recall the medieval persecution of heretics and the evangelical zeal shown by some bishops to conduct schismatic surgery.
6. Now the Pope calls for self-examination of the church and also of the Archdiocese. It is only animals who repeat the past by habit. Man creates history by writing the story of man with novelty of innovation, which is a spiritual endeavour. “That there be a beginning, man was created,” says Augustine in The City of God. The old regime was removed, we are called not to repeat the past. The new Major Archbishop is a new person; please create newness in the church, and not repeat the old rotten ways.