A meeting of Church representatives in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese has demanded that full people-facing Mass be recognised as a liturgical variant in the Syro-Malabar Church.
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A communication from Almaya Munnettam, the lay people’s forum in the archdiocese, said representatives of 328 parishes who met in Kochi on Tuesday reiterated the demand by the vast majority of archdiocesan priests at a recent presbyteral council meeting.
The parish delegates also accused Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil of a conspiracy to wreck the archdiocese. Though Archbishop Thattil promised discussions on the Mass issue on several occasions, he had not come forward for discussions, the group alleged.
The official name of the Syro-Malabar Church in the Vatican records is Ernakulam-Angamaly Archiepiscopal Church. The Syro-Malabar Church no longer uses this official name now. Under the circumstances, if the Syro-Malabar Church had any difficulty in recognising the liturgical variant, the group of priests and lay people in favour of the full people-facing Mass should be allowed to exist as the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archiepiscopal Church, an independent archdiocese under the Vatican, the communication added.