The apostolic administrator of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church Andrews Thazhath has appealed to priests and lay members of St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica to help pave the way to reopen the principal church of the archdiocese, closed down before Christmas last year, and to introduce the Synodal unified Mass from Easter this year.
“Don’t allow the cathedral basilica to remain closed any further and let us stand united as Catholics and members of the Syro-Malabar Church,‘‘ said the appeal sent out by the apostolic administrator here on Monday. The appeal comes a day after a pastoral letter from him, circulated ahead of Easter to be read out throughout the archdiocese, was rejected by most of the priests and lay people. The letter was not read out in a majority of the parishes.
“The ground should be prepared for our fathers to celebrate the Mass at the basilica cathedral where the Pope, the Holy See and the Synod of Bishops have allowed only the unified Mass,” said Archbishop Thazhath. He also said, citing the pastoral letter of March 26, “We must gather strength from the holy sacrament for reconciliation with the church and the Pope’‘.
He said the appeal was being sent out at a time when wrong impressions were being created about the basilica cathedral. The Mass, he said, is the most important sacrament and a final authority on the way the Mass is celebrated is the Holy See and the Synod of Bishops. A proposal for unified Mass was submitted in 1999. Though the implementation was delayed, a further order was issued prescribing unified Mass on July 3, 2021. The Synod of Bishops in August that year issued an order that the unified Mass would come into effect from the Advent (November 28, 2021). The unified Mass celebration involves the celebrant facing the congregation in the first and the last parts of the Mass.
The letter pointed out that though 34 of the 35 dioceses in the Syro-Malabar Church implemented the decision, it did not come into effect in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. It was then decided that the unified Mass would be in effect at least from Easter of 2022. However, the decision was not implemented and the Holy See had conveyed that a liturgical variant could not be allowed for the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, the Archbishop said in his letter.
