The faithful of the Syro-Malabar rite now have a basilica for worship. The community coordinator, Fr Biju Muttathu-nnel, comments: “We are all celebrating, it is a great gift from the diocese and the Vatican.” An estimated 7 thousand faithful belonging to this rite live in the Italian capital and surrounding province: originating in Kerala (Southern India), they are now integrated within the Italian community.

According to Catholic tradi-tion, this Eastern rite church traces its origins to the preaching of St Thomas the Apostle on the subcontinent. For more than 25 years it was sui iuris, and there-fore has the right to erect its own communities where the faithful have emigrated.

There is a large presence of Syro-Malabarians in Chicago, Melbourne, Canada and the United Kingdom. In Europe the community has an apostolic Visitor, Msgr Stephen Chirappa-nath, who coordinates the com-munities of Zurich, Cologne, Frankfurt and Vienna.