Catholic Nazrani Association, a laypeople group, held a token dawn-to-dusk fast in front of St. Thomas Mount, headquarters of the Syro-Malabar Church, here on Tuesday urging early implementation of the synod-approved unified mass.
“This is a token protest, if the Church authorities fail to implement the decision on mass liturgy, we would go on an indefinite fast after May 31,” said M. P. George, president of the association.
He said members of the Nazrani association would await the result of a crucial permanent synod meeting in Rome on May 13 and the return of Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church Raphael Thattil and Bosco Puthur, apostolic administrator of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, to get their response.
The protest took place even as the permanent synod members of the archdiocese are set to leave for Rome for the May 13 meeting. Groups supporting the Church hierarchy, including Sabha Samrakshana Samithy, a united forum for protection of the Church, have demanded the implementation of the synod mass, which involves the mass celebrant facing the congregation for the introductory and blessings before turning away to the holy of holies for the consecration.
However, the vast majority of priests and lay people has demanded the continuation of the full congregation-facing mass being practised for decades in the archdiocese. Almaya Munnettam, a lay group opposed to the synodal mass decision, has also suggested that the full people-facing mass can be recognised as a liturgical variant.
Alternatively, they expressed a desire to be part of an independent metropolitan Church in communion with Rome but without the suzerainty of the Syro-Malabar hierarchy.
Archbishop Thattil’s upcoming visit to Rome will mark his first to the Vatican after he took charge of the nearly five million-strong Syro-Malabar Church in January this year. The Church is among the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with Rome and is the largest one. The mass liturgy issue is no major contention in other dioceses but has vexed Church authorities in the archdiocese for more than three years now.
