I wish to congratulate you, not so much for the appointment as Major Archbishop, but for the hope that you would bring to rest at least for a while the intrigues and fights that have been wounding the Syro-Malabar Church and that there could be ‘listening ears’ amid arguments and counter-arguments on the non-essentials.
Pope Francis has given you a mandate – ‘don’t forget the poor.’ That could be the ‘horizon’ (in your own words) for the Syro-Malabar Church, emerging from this unwanted, childish and synod-led crisis.
The huge churches (mansions), with Vatican Basilica-type domes, all along the tiny but enrapturing strip of land of Kerala – god’s own country (Hindu, Christian, Islamic, Dalit, Marxist, trans-gender gods?) – do not invite ‘seekers’ inside, but turn true believers into ‘outsiders.’
The Year 2023 gave us ‘The Face of the Faceless’ – that heroic martyr called ‘Rani Maria’ – a true and brave daughter of the Syro-Malabar Church, and a martyr for Justice – witnessed the worst churchy fights, initiated by a thoughtless and provocative Synod, and masterminded by ‘chaldaya vadis’ for whom Jesus of the gospels is to be hidden ‘behind the curtain.’
When Pope Francis defined God as Mercy, and went to Baghdad to release “Fratelli tutti,’ the bishop of Pala is inventing Love Jihad in order to protect his women-folk from the Muslims, this in spite of an obligatory Syrian Catechesis for 12 years of school education. Mind you – There is NO common Catechetical Text for the whole of Kerala! We are Syrians.
When Pope Francis, on his first Maundy Thursday, washed the feet of young differently abled people including women, the Supra-pontificate of Syro-Malabar Church forbade such ‘acts’ because such an act is not acceptable to Kerala Culture/tradition – that too in a land that once forbade Dalit women to cover the upper part of their bodies, and strict untouchability was enforced; and fought against it bravely, Samudayam is more important than ‘Christian communities.’
When the first duly elected Marxist government in Kerala introduced ‘Land Act’ to give 10 cents of land to each tenant, the ancient, apostolic church of Syro-Malabar version, fought against it. Years later, the Pope invites you, ‘not to forget the poor’ – are we seeing the full circle of this social churning?
While late Sugatha Kumari – the well-known Malayalam poet – campaigned to protect the ecology of Wayanad, against the impending ecological disaster, the Syrian Church stood for its ‘samudayam’ that has contributed unwittingly to the disaster, and refused to see the global implications of such ecological crisis! ‘Laudato si’ is taken out of the Synod Agenda.
When the Latin Catholics campaigned against the ’Vizhinjam port’ project, because it affected their livelihood and on-coming ecological perils, it was reduced to a Latin issue, and the Syrians looked the other way.
Our ‘samudayam’ is more important than Gospel values, so our bishops will speak for increasing the price of rubber, forbid our people to act in films that embodies the ‘blessings’ of Pope Francis, and behave as if the ‘Syrian votes’ are in their pockets.
The Syro-Malabar Church is abusing the privilege accorded to individual churches, by the Second Vatican Council, in order to protect and foster true diversity of Catholicism, and is on a ‘colonizing expedition’ all over the world, to establish Syrian Identity, and building a multinational body often causing divisions within the local church communities.
Are we building Christian communities of ‘Jesus’ Table-Fellowship’ (radical inclusiveness), or expanding our ‘samudayam’ with its ‘kudayum’ (umbrella) and ‘kodimaravum’ (flag-pole), at the expense of supporting Christian communities of ‘washing one’s another’s feet?’
‘Populism, polarization and post-Truth’ (Naim Moises, The Revenge of power) seems to befit Syro-Malabar Church, with its hegemonic possibilities and adventures. Our ministry of reconciliation seems to be the easy victim. That does not matter as long ‘our tradition (Syrian) and culture (hegemony) are protected.
As Malayalam poet Madhusudan Nair wrote: ‘Bhoomiyil satyathinu etra vayasai’? (what is the age of truth on this earth? AD 52?

• Fr George Pattery SJ
  Matters India
  (Father George Pattery is the former leader of South Asia’s more than 4,000 Jesuits.
  He shares the native place of the new Major Archbishop – Thrissur.)