Almaya Munnettam, a lay people’s group opposed to synod Mass in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, said it would not allow the setting up of ecclesiastical or church courts in the archdiocese to try priests who were opposed to the synod-prescribed Mass celebration.
The Syro-Malabar Synod has for about two years unsuccessfully tried to implement a unified Mass system in which the priest faced the congregation for the initial phase and final blessings. However, a large group of lay people and the vast majority of the priests have said they will stick to the tradition of full congregation facing Mass. Almaya Munnettam has vociferously opposed the synod and favoured full people facing mass as the vast majority of priests.
The lay group challenged Raphael Thattil, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church, and said, “No bishop will be allowed to establish ecclesiastical court. They will be blockaded.”
A spokesman of the group on Monday said church courts were a thing of the past. But the Syro-Malabar Church appears eager to travel back in time. A church court has been set up to try Aji Puthiyaparambil, a priest of Thamarassery diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church. The judges in such courts were the bishop’s acolytes, leaving no chance to the defendant to argue his case or to seek clarifications, he said.
The church court was a disgrace to the Indian system of delivering justice and it would be blocked, said the lay people’s group. Parishes in the archdiocese will hold meetings to openly declare their stand against the church courts and to extend support to the priests.
The lay group has once again defied the hierarchy amid reports that permanent synod members of the church would travel to the Vatican in the first week of May to meet officials of the Congregation for Oriental Churches to find a permanent settlement to the Mass liturgy issue.
