A four-member team from the presbyteral council of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church met Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, head of the Vatican diplomatic mission in India, on Thursday in New Delhi.
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A statement issued by senior priest Father Jose Vailkodath here said the meeting was immediately necessitated by reports of a possible bifurcation of the archdiocese even as issues related to a liturgical dispute and controversial land deals remained unresolved.
The meeting was held after a request from presbyteral council secretary Father Kuriakose Mundadan to meet the apostolic nuncio. The meeting at the nunciature was held between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday. The team from Ernakulam comprised Father Antony Narikulam, Father Jose Edassery, Father Kuriakose Mundadan, and Father Biju Perumayan.
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The statement from Father Vailikodath said the meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere. The priests’ representatives provided an account of the problems besetting the archdiocese and their background. A letter signed by 456 priests requesting that the archdiocese should not be bifurcated was handed over to the apostolic nuncio. The letters had earlier been sent to the Dicastery of Eastern Churches and the Secretary of State in the Vatican.
The statement also claimed that problems related to pastoral care after Archbishop Andrews Thazhath took charge as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese were conveyed to the apostolic nuncio, who was also informed of the urgent need to reopen the St. Mary’s Basilica, which remains shut since late December last year.
It is also learnt that the priests met Faridabad Bishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara before they called on the apostolic nuncio. However, the matter could not be confirmed.
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The Delhi visit of the priests assumes significance amid speculations that they will get a clear answer on the long-drawn liturgical dispute in the archdiocese as well as on the controversial land deals by Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church.
The liturgical dispute is over the way the Mass is said. Moreover, a recent letter from the supreme tribunal of the Catholic Church (apostolic signatura) to Father Perumayan, while clarifying the tribunal’s stand on land deals by the Cardinal, directed the priest to clarify matters with the competent dicastery or the apostolic nunciature in India.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal led permanent Synod members of the Church to Rome in the first week of May for discussions on issues confronting the archdiocese. They met Secretary of State cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti on May 4. Nothing is known of the outcome of the meetings in Rome as the Church hierarchy here has avoided speaking to the press.