Pope Francis has invited the youth of the Syro-Malabar Church to follow Jesus by saying “yes” to a life of service and responsibility, and “no” to one of superficiality and dissipation.
The Pope said on June 18 during a meeting with the pilgrims of the “Syro-Malabar Youth Leaders Conference.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is one of the two Eastern Catholic autonomous (sui iuris) Churches in India, in full communion with the Pope, the other one being the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. The Syro-Malabar is the third largest sui juris Church of the Catholic Church, and the second largest Eastern Catholic Church after the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with some 4.25 million faithful worldwide.
Over half of them live in the Indian state of Kerala, where the Church dates back to the first century following the preaching of Saint Thomas the Apostle and where the Church is still based.