Catholic World News News Feature
Traditions in Competition January 07, 2002
By Anto Akkara
Last November 15, the bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church ended their eighth synod with a promise "to strive to bring about liturgical unity." But the prospects for success in that effort were not promising.
The synod, which lasted for two weeks and involved 21 of the 23 bishops active in the Eastern-rite Catholic Church, had been dominated by disputes involving the nature of the liturgy, as well as by the demands of some Church leaders for full autonomy. And the effects of that debate, which had arisen within the one Indian state where the Church is strongest, had threatened to paralyze a large and ordinarily vigorous communion.
The Syro-Malabar Church in India traces its heritage back to St. Thomas the Apostle, who reportedly stretched his missionary effort as far as the Indian state of Kerala, landing there in 52 AD. After an early flirtation with the Nestorian heresy, the Malabars were restored to full communion with Rome in the 16th century. The hierarchy of the Church was formally approved by the Vatican in 1923, and in 1993 the Syro-Malabar communion was raised to the status of a major archepiscopal church.
A vibrant and growing Catholic community of 3.2 million faithful, the Church now boasts 23 dioceses, which account for almost half of the 8,000 diocesan clergy in the 130 dioceses of India. Still more impressive, although they account for only about 20 percent of the country's Catholic population, the Syro-Malabars have furnished more than 60 percent of missionary priests working in India.
ROOTS OF THE DEBATE
However, the vigor of the Syro-Malabar Church has been increasingly threatened by a heated internal debate. One group--apparently a minority within the Church--has campaigned intensively to restore the Chaldean, or Syrian liturgy which was the norm for the Syro-Malabar Church for centuries. This "Chaldean" faction argues that the Church must be faithful to her traditions, which stem from the development of the Syro-Malabar communion from the early contacts between the "Thomas Christians" of India and missionaries from Syria.
Their opponents in the intramural debate agree that the Syro-Malabars should honor their tradition. But that tradition, they argue, has been inextricably woven into the culture of India, where the Church is located. Moreover, they argue that the Chaldean faction has advanced its status within the Syro-Malabar Church by forming alliances with Vatican officials, whose interests in the Eastern liturgy are foreign to any Syro-Malabar tradition.
Genuine adherence to the particular traditions of the Syro-Malabar Church, the Indian faction concludes, would require greater independence from the Vatican. They lament that the Syro-Malabar Church does not have the authority to name bishops, or to settle sensitive liturgical disputes, without the involvement of the Vatican. Some Eastern-rite churches, such as the Ukrainian Catholic Church, have a substantially greater degree of "sui generis" autonomy.
PROTEST MARCHES
When the bishops gathered in Ernakulam, the seat of the Syro-Malabar Church, to begin their synod last October, they encountered a very visible public protest from the Indian faction. Over 1,000 priests, nuns, and lay people from the 13 Syro-Malabar dioceses of the southern Kerala state marched behind a banner that proclaimed: "We are not Chaldeans. We are Indians." That demonstration was staged by the Malabar Church Action Council (MCAC), which announced that it had come to protest the "Chaldeanization attempts by the minority group with the collision of the [Vatican] Congregation for the Oriental Churches," and to demand full autonomy for their Church.
The historical evidence seems to lend some support to both Chaldeans and Indians. The majority of Church historians presume that the arrival of a Jewish Christian trader from Mesopotamia in the 4th century paved the way for domination by the East Syrians--better known as Chaldeans--over the Thomas Christians who had flourished in India and especially in Kerala. While the bishops--originally hailing from Persia--who arrived here were placed in charge of liturgy, the administration of the Church remained under the control of the local archdeacon, who was also the head of the local community. Hence, the Kerala Church used the Chaldean liturgy, but remained culturally and socially Indian.
The Syro-Malabar Church remains unique in several ways. Few scholars would debate that the Church today is, as a popular expression puts it: "Hindu in culture, Christian in religion, and Oriental in worship." The Church is known as Syrian for its contact with the East Syrian church and for the Syriac language which was used in worship until 1968, when the Mass was said for the first time in Malayalam, Kerala's mother tongue.
THE INFLUENCE OF ROME
In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries with the support of an aggressive colonial army converted many Indians, while imposing a Western form of administration on the government and even the Catholic Church. Over-zealous missionaries tried to impose Latin Church practices, and interfered with the functioning of the local Church. In place of the Chaldean Persian bishops who had served them for centuries, the Catholics of India now had European bishops.
When the Thomas Christians were separated from the Latins by the establishment of their own apostolic vicariate in 1887, and a hierarchy was established in 1923, it was called Syro-Malabar Church. After setting up the Syro-Malabar hierarchy in 1923, Rome initiated several steps to protect the liturgical patrimony of the Eastern Church, and a pontifical commission was appointed in 1934 to restore the traditions of the Syro-Malabar liturgy.
Through the 1960s there were several changes in the Syro-Malabar liturgy, and in 1986 another new liturgy was approved in Rome. The new rite, intended to bring the Church more in line with the Chaldean tradition, was introduced in 1986 during a visit by Pope John Paul II. However, a majority of faithful, including bishops, strongly objected to this "Chaldeanization," precipitating the dispute which survives to this day.
Early this year, the Vatican tried a new effort to settle the liturgical quarrel. And--oddly enough, in the light of the deep divisions which the past few years had illustrated--both Chaldean and Indian factions enthusiastically welcomed Rome's move as a promising first step toward new Church unity.
The Vatican had accepted the resignation of the last major archbishop, Cardinal Antony Padiyara, on December 18, for health reasons; he is suffering from Parkinson's disease. To fill the gap caused by his resignation, the Holy See chose to appoint an apostolic administrator to head the Syro-Malabar Church. Archbishop Varkey Vithayathil assumed office at Ernakulam on January 18 in a solemn installation ceremony.
Archbishop Vithayathil, a native of Kerala and Redemptorist priest, was ordained to the episcopacy in Rome by Pope John Paul II on the feast of Epiphany. He was then installed as the apostolic administrator and acting head of the Syro-Malabar Church, with all the powers of the major archbishop, to serve until a new major archbishop is elected by the Syro-Malabar synod.
Cardinal Padiyara had been made the first major archbishop of the Syro-Malabars in December 1992, when the first began the process of setting up an autonomous Syro-Malabar hierarchy. However, at that time the Vatican reserved some important powers, such as the right to appoint bishops and to set liturgical standards. So Cardinal Padiyara shared his authority with the pontifical delegate, Archbishop Abraham Kattumana. It was only when Archbishop Kattumana died unexpectedly, of a sudden heart attack in April 1995, that Cardinal Padiyara assumed the right to preside at meetings of the Syro-Malabar synod.
SIGNS OF MOVEMENT
The appointment of Archbishop Vithayathil drew favorable reactions from people on both sides of the intramural debate."Now there is a new atmosphere. The apostolic administrator appointed by the Vatican should be able to sort out the problem," said Archbishop Joseph Powathil of Chenganacherry, president of the Indian bishops' conference, and a leader of the Chaldean faction. He said that the appointment indicated "a renewed effort to end the difference of opinion in the Church." While he rued the hostility and negative publicity created by the liturgical debate, the archbishop observed, "this is the price the Church leadership has to pay for neglecting to educate our people on our liturgy and faith for years."
From the opposite side of the liturgical divide, E.K. Paul-- the chairman of the Malabar Church Action Council (MCAC)-- predicted that Archbishop Vithayathil "should be able to develop a consensus on the contentious liturgical question." He added: "The archbishop is a local man and is well aware of the problem facing the Church."
Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Oriental Churches, made the wishes of the Holy See quite clear in a formal message to the new archbishop, which was read at his public installation ceremony ""I wish to express my congratulations and my prayers that [the appointment] may bring renewed harmony and hope to the entire Syro-Malabar Church," Cardinal Silvestrini wrote.
[AUTHOR ID] Anto Akkara is a free-lance writer based in New Delhi.
