A presbyterium (meeting of the council of priests) of the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly will be held at Niveditha, Chunangamveli, on April 19 with apostolic administrator archbishop Bosco Puthur presiding over it. The day-long meeting has been notified by the protosyncellus of the archdiocese Father Varghese Pottakkal.
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The topic of discussion at the presbyteral council meeting, scheduled between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., has not been specified. But a group of lay people in support of the synod of the archdiocese backing the hierarchy on the issue of Mass liturgy claimed that the meeting was meant to elicit the views of priests on the Mass issue.
The meeting would discuss the way the synod decision for a unified Mass would be implemented in the archdiocese, said a spokesman of the lay group. The group has supported the synod diktat for a unified Mass in which the celebrant faced the congregation only during the first and last parts of the Mass and turned away from the congregation for the consecration of the Eucharist.
However, the vast majority of priests and lay people have favoured continuing with a full congregation facing Mass in keeping with the current practice. The issue has vexed the archdiocese for several decades, with the differences becoming sharper and more visible to the public occasionally. Those who oppose the synod Mass have not heeded an appeal from higher Church authorities to follow the synod’s mind on the liturgy.