Your Holiness Pope Francis,

We, the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church, write to you with deep pain and grief. During our history, in times of oppression and the suppression of our traditions, our forefathers appealed to your predecessors to entrust our pastoral care to our own leaders. Our prayers were answered, and we were blessed with our own bishops.

Even after the Church was entrusted to the pastoral care of our own bishops, your predecessors provided them with clear vision and guidance to restore traditions and revive the Church. They remained steadfast, refusing to make compromises. At one point, your predecessor even sought the resignation of our then-head, Cardinal Joseph Parecattil, for failing to obey the directives of the Holy See, distorting the divine liturgy, and leading the faithful toward pagan practices.

During turbulent times, we had strong and visionary leaders, such as Mar Joseph Powathil, who was appointed by your predecessor, now Saint Pope Paul VI. Leaders like him guided us toward prosperity and good times. However, over time, as our bishops were granted greater autonomy, they began appointing weaker successors. These weak leaders, in turn, selected even weaker ones, leaving us in the midst of an unprecedented crisis.

Our current leadership has failed to address the grave challenges facing our Church. Instead of taking decisive action, they remain passive—much like Emperor Nero, who played the violin while Rome burned. The Major Archbishop, rather than providing the leadership we desperately need, seems more focused on ceremonial visits and public felicitations. Even after a year in office, there has been no meaningful effort to resolve the crisis. Meanwhile, the Synod of Bishops continues to appoint ineffective leaders to the episcopate, further weakening the Church and driving the final nail into the coffin of our beloved Church, which carries a sacred tradition of 2,000 years.

Therefore, in this Jubilee Year, for the survival of our Church and its future generations—until the next Jubilee Year and beyond—we humbly implore Your Holiness to intervene immediately. We request that you freeze the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church and revoke its administrative powers until stability is restored. We also urge you to take back the authority to appoint new bishops and to elect the Major Archbishop until competent and faithful leadership is ensured.

As the descendants of those very forefathers who once wrote to your predecessors seeking autonomy for our Church, it is with deep sorrow that we now find ourselves pleading for its revocation. Autonomy, in the hands of such incapable leadership, has become not a blessing, but a grave danger to the Church. We urge Your Holiness to take direct governance of our Church until strong and faithful leadership is restored.

Holy Father, we plead with you to hear our cries and save our Church from the hands of weak, indifferent, and self-serving leaders who prioritize their own positions over the spiritual and pastoral well-being of the faithful. 

With deep faith and hope,