An insignificant issue like the orientation of the Eucharistic celebration has snowballed into a catastrophe in the Syro-Malabar Church. The synod of bishops is fully responsible for it. I am a priest of the archdiocese of Ernakulam who told fellow priests to capitulate. This I did seeing the papal delegate conducting a procession with the Eucharist in hand all through the streets leading to the Cathedral Basilica, accompanied by a contingent of more than 300 armed police men. He could not enter the Basilica because of the people protesting outside, but he entered through the Archbishop’s house and sat in a hall there. He returned after opening the cathedral. People felt it as a monstrous act of sacrilege. As a Catholic, I feel terribly wounded. I also understand he has issued show-cause notices to some priests. When a small group of priests met him, he told them in unambiguous terms that he had come to implement the uniform mode of celebration of the Holy Mass in the archdiocese. Sine he did not offer any space for discussion, the priests told him that they would not come for any further meeting.
Reading the letters and other papers produced by the papal legate, it becomes rather clear he is bent on punishing the priests and people of the archdiocese for alleged schism. Are they in any way schismatic? They have not even dreamt of such a thing. They profess allegiance to the Pope and they also name their bishops in the Holy Mass. They are only protesting to preserve a form of ritual that they have been accustomed to continuously for the last half a century. This cannot not be considered a matter grave enough to attract serious punishment. A case of schism is being attributed with the intention of punishing them with suspension a divinis and excommunication. The sorry reality of it all is that so far no ecclesiastic authority has introduced the papal delegate to the priests and the people of the archdiocese. No one tells what for and with what authority he has come. He acts as if he wields a lot of administrative power. He was once the secretary of the Congregation for Oriental churches in Vatican. He does not have any post or position in the Vatican presently. He hails from the Eastern bloc countries and is the bishop of a small Oriental church. He belongs to the Jesuit Order. Many Jesuits have tried to talk sense to him, but their efforts were to no avail. He seems to have come carrying the mallus maleficarum of the medieval church, which means “Hammer of witches” or weapon of punishment for the “trouble makers.” The book known by that name was written by Heinrich Kramer and published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. It is supposedly a compendium of literature on demonology belonging to the 15th century. Kramer gives scientific proofs to verify devil possession beyond doubt and advocates burning the possessed alive. So many women and men were burned. ‘‘We humbly ask forgiveness,’’ John Paul II said, delivering the most sweeping papal apology ever, repenting for the errors committed by the church over the past 2,000 years. In the church, many conferences of bishops have expressed dissent on the encyclical Humane Vitae of Paul VI. Some senior and very highly placed cardinals continually criticise and oppose Pope Francis on his idea of synodality. The whole church of Germany teaches and professes things contrary to the present teaching of the church. Different yardsticks for different people! Indifferentism in the Western church was the creation of such a kind of insensitive approach to pastoral issues originating from authentic crises of the times, which were resolved applying Manicheistic dualisms. Cardinal Gerhard Burke criticises Pope Francis for his revolutionary ideas “to change the church radically” and the German church is in “division – indeed schism, to the grave harm of many souls.”
The original decision of uniform mode of Eucharistic celebration was a ploy to subjugate and punish the whistle blowers of the land sale scandal. We thought Vatican would see the truth and give us justice, but it appears we were mistaken. This is a serious setback, but not the end of our Catholic story. Ways can still be found to settle the dispute; if not, it will prove the church is not mature enough to self-govern.