Priest’s suspension raises tensions in Indian archdiocese
The Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy has been in turmoil since 2017.
A priest’s suspension has raised tensions between clergy and church officials in an Indian archdiocese at the heart of the Syro-Malabar Church’s liturgy dispute.
In a Dec. 1 statement, the Syro-Malabar Media Commission condemned what it described as “protests conducted by priests in collaboration with certain anti-church organizations against the suspension of a priest who humiliated the vicar in front of hundreds of believers during the Holy Qurbana [Eucharistic liturgy] at Manjapra Mar Sleeva Forane Church.”
The communications arm of the Syro-Malabar Church’s Major Archiepiscopal Curia was referring to an incident at a church in Manjapra, a village in the Ernakulam district in India’s southern Kerala state.
The church is in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, which serves more than 500,000 Syro-Malabar Catholics. The archeparchy is the most prominent diocese in the Syro-Malabar Church, the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the pope after the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The archeparchy is the seat of Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, but its day-to-day governance is overseen by a Vatican-appointed apostolic administrator, Bishop Bosco Puthur.
There are contrasting accounts of the incident in Manjapra, believed to have occurred Nov. 24, but agreement that it resulted in the suspension of the church’s assistant vicar.
Following the suspension, priests of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy arranged to meet at St. Martin De Porres Church in Palarivattom, an area in the port city of Kochi, to discuss their response.
In a Nov. 28 letter to Fr. Thomas Valookaran, vicar of St. Martin De Poress Church, Bishop Puthur said he had learned that “an unauthorized assembly of priests” was due to take place at the church the following day.
Puthur told the priest he should not lead or host “such unauthorized assembly in the St. Martin De Poress Church premises or in its institutions.”
Puthur recalled that he had prohibited unauthorized meetings on church premises in an Oct. 30 circular letter.
On Nov. 29, priests gathered under the auspices of the Archdiocesan Protection Committee, which rejects the introduction of a new uniform Eucharistic liturgy in the archeparchy.
In a statement, the priests demanded that the assistant vicar’s suspension be lifted by Dec. 3. They said clergy and lay people would launch further protests against Puthur and the archeparchy’s curia if the priest remained suspended.
Puthur launched a controversial overhaul of the local curia in October, saying he was obliged to take the step following the occupation of the curial offices by protesters in late September.
The personnel changes, which took effect Oct. 9, included the replacement of the archeparchy’s protosyncellus, chancellor, and assistant finance officer.
The new curial officials were listed in a 2025 diary that church authorities attempted to distribute across the archeparchy. But critics sought to protest against the changes by returning the diaries to the Major Archbishop’s House in Ernakulam.
According to the Archdiocesan Protection Committee, police stopped the critics at the building’s entrance, prompting them to dump the boxes in front of the complex’s closed gates.
Relations between priests and ecclesiastical authorities in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy became severely strained in 2017, when the archeparchy was rocked by the so-called “land scam” scandal.
The scandal centered on real estate transactions that lost the archeparchy a reputed $10 million and led to legal proceedings. The “land scam” triggered what became known as the “Ernakulam priests’ revolt,” in which clergy demanded the removal of the then Major Archbishop, Cardinal George Alencherry, who rejected allegations of wrongdoing.
In recent years, the archeparchy has emerged as a bastion of resistance against efforts to introduce a new “uniform” liturgy throughout the Syro-Malabar Church.
In 2021, the Synod of Bishops — the Syro-Malabar Church’s supreme authority — asked all dioceses to accept the introduction of the new Eucharistic liturgy.
In the new uniform mode, the priest faces the people during the Liturgy of the Word, turns toward the altar (ad orientem) for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and then faces the people again after Communion.
Most priests and lay people in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy refused to adopt the new liturgy, arguing that the archeparchy’s priests should be allowed to continue celebrating the liturgy facing the people throughout (versus populum).
Catholics in the archeparchy have expressed their opposition to the new liturgy through boycotts, hunger strikes, and the burning of cardinals in effigy, as well as burning letters from Church officials and turning them into paper boats.
In June, Syro-Malabar leaders declared that priests refusing to adopt the new liturgy by July 3 would be considered in schism and barred from ministry.
Just before the deadline elapsed, both sides reached a compromise in which parishes could continue celebrating the liturgy versus populum if they provided at least one uniform Eucharistic liturgy on Sundays and major feast days.
In October, the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy clarified that the dispensation for the archeparchy’s priests to continue celebrating the versus populum liturgy was a “temporary concession,” rather than a recognition of a right.
Bishop Puthur has continued to suggest that priests resisting changes could ultimately face disciplinary measures.
In its Dec. 1 statement, the Syro-Malabar Media Commission said: “According to the laws of the Catholic Church, any disciplinary action aims at the individual’s repentance and change of heart. When those who have vowed obedience and accepted priesthood commit indiscipline that even ordinary people hesitate to do, it not only endangers their own salvation but also disturbs many believers.”
The commission insisted that such disciplinary proceedings were “very common.”
“The Church will continue such lawful disciplinary actions,” the commission said. “Therefore, priests and organizations, who repeatedly tarnish the Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy in the public through unnecessary protests, are requested to withdraw from anti-church activities.”
This has been a sad but fascinating story for months. What I have yet to see in the reporting is why priests are so intent on offering the liturgy versus populum and why the bishops are so intent on offering it ad orientem. What are their theological reasons for being so intransigent? There has to be more than emotions here.
It increasingly appears that the only option is to put an interdict on the archdiocese that is the center of resistance. In other words, suppress it.