Members of Almaya Munnettam, a lay people’s group of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, gathered in front of the St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica on Wednesday to say the Rosary holding lighted candles to protest against the church remaining closed for 150 days now. The archdiocese’s principal church, alleged the group, is closed as part of a personal agenda of apostolic administrator archbishop Andrews Thazhath. The group demanded its immediate reopening.
The lay people’s group demanded that the apostolic administrator must refrain from, what it called, activities that deny the rights of around 2,000 families in the parish. They also demanded that the cathedral should continue with the fully congregation-facing Mass as was the old practice and that Fr. Antony Puthavelil should be ousted from the church.
The group also demanded that the archdiocesan administrator withdraw an alleged statement that the archdiocese will be bifurcated if the priest and lay people did not listen to the synod of bishops.
