To

His Excellency Bishop Bosco Puthur

Bishop, Syro-Malabar Diocese of Melbourne, Australia.

Copy to:

1.       Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Palazzo del Bramante, 00193 Roma, Via della Conciliazione, 34

2.       Archbishop Giorgio Demertio Gallaro, Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches

3.       George Cardinal Alanchery, Major Archbishop, Syro-Malabar Church

4.       Rev Fr. Sabu Jacob VC, Acting Parish Priest, St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Maddington, Western Australia.

Subject: Installation of Curtain and Holy Mass facing the Altar.

Your Excellency,

The catholic diaspora living in Western Australia under the umbrella of the St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Perth, Western Australia is divided and disappointed on the above critical subject matters.

The Syro-Malabar synod decision to impose the new decision of making uniformity of “Holy Mass facing the Altar” and the installation of “Altar Curtain” creates utter disappointment and division among the laity of St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Perth, Western Australia.

Though the Eparch of the local church holds the authority to give dispensation to the synod decision based on the culture and ongoing practises of the local church, you look adamant to hold your personal interest despite of multiple requests from the laity. In case you do not have such an authority, taking into consideration the local situation, you have a moral responsibility to persuade the competent authority to reverse the decision.

 We the catholic community of the above parish unanimously state the below that,

1.       We are familiar and grew up with the current holy mass practises “facing the people” from our childhood. We would like to continue the current practices and do not accept any revisions/changes whatsoever. The new imposed decisions would negatively affect our faith and practices. Moreover, it would drastically affect our children and they would face a faith crisis if they asked to move to a new system with a paradigm shift.

2.       “The Curtain” that you are trying to install in the middle of the church will create a vacuum in our faith and believes in celebrating the Holy Mass. We have never seen such a practice in our whole lives, the force to separate the laity from the celebrant will end up not going for the mass, and it would create empty churches in this region. This attempt would negatively affect our children in keeping away from the church and catholic practices.

3.       By imposing the above subject matters, you are trying to sacrifice our catholic faith and ancestral traditions for the politics and unhealthy ego of a group among the members of the Syro-Malabar synod. We believe in unity than uniformity. Catholic Church consists of different churches with various traditions. Vatican Council II teaches unity than uniformity. Your interest and decisions take us to think about the Church of pre-Vatican Council II.

4.       St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Perth, Western Australia is building the new parish church where we have contributed a huge amount of money due to the love towards the Catholic Church and the nourishment of our faith. All the above subject matters will tarnish our faith and love towards the mother church. If your sole decision is imposed on us, we will be forced to move away from church practises and faith commitments.

5.       If you are still forcing us to obey your adamant decisions, we will be reserving our rights and options not to support any of the church activities and financial support. We will spread the unhealthy practice in the Syro-Malabar church, will embrace the local Latin Catholic Church, and will no longer be wished to be called “syro- malabarians”.

Hence, we the members of the St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Perth, Western Australia humbly request that,

1.       Persuade the competent authority to freeze the synod decision to implement the new mode of celebrating the Holy Mass, which is facing the Altar.

2.       By reserving the rights of an Eparch of the local church, suspend the synod decision to install the ‘curtain’ in the newly built church for St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Maddington, Western Australia.

3.       Allow us to continue the same mode of liturgical practises and do not force us to adapt to new modes which would create confusion and chaos within the faith community in Perth, Australia.

We humbly request Your Excellency to approach the competent authority to express the feelings and concerns of the Syro-Malabar diaspora in Perth regarding the subject matters. If we do not receive an official reply vide a letter read at the church, we will not be able to support and cooperate at the consecration of the new parish church.

Sincerely,

All the Undersigned parish members of the St Joseph Syro-Malabar Parish, Perth, Western Australia