Prayer from the Syro Malabar Faithfuls in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly

Your Holiness,

Greetings and prayers from the faithful in the Archdiocese of  Ernakulam - Angamaly.

With profound respect and proper politeness, the undersigned, submits the following prayer before Your Holiness that he represents the catholic faithfuls in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

1. Cultural background of the liturgy issue:
India is a land of diversities and dissimilarities. Kerala is no different from that. From north to south Kerala has different people with different cultures, different cultures, different usage of language and even different food. We believe that 2000 years ago St. Thomas came here and proclaimed the word of the Lord. St. Thomas handed over the catholic faith to us. We listened to him and accepted him from our own cultural, social, lingual and traditional beliefs and practices. Syro Malabar Church is constituted by amalgamating three different Vicariates of Ernakulam​, Trichur and Changanacherry having three different cultures existing in a multicultural population. Those differences existed within Syro Malabar Church even after its establishment. So, the cultural variations must the accepted as a reality within our church. But we are united as a church to proclaim the word of love and the teachings of Jesus.

2. Love and accept everyone as they are:
Jesus says, “for the sake of your tradition, you nullify the word of God” (Matthew 15:6). We followed the faith handed over to us by  St. Thomas rather than his own tradition. We the faithful in Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese are always walking with the Holy See and its teachings. We followed the Second Vatican Council teaching of mass versus populum after it declared that the Church is the people of God. Jesus continues, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”(Matthew 15: 8-9). We wish to follow Jesus and his teachings. We wish to continue the mass versus populum, which I believe will strengthen our faith in Jesus.

3. Transparent Church is Listening Church
As the church emerged from the Apostles of Jesus and its evolution as an institution, there were many residual impurities clogged  inside and expelled as corruption and abuse of power. As a Major Archiepiscopal Church, the hierarchy has gained more administrative power. Unfortunately, those powers were used to impose their own decisions and to dictate the church instead of listening to the people of God. Recent developments including land scam cases in our church are the best examples of that. Accountability is an unfamiliar term in the Syro Malabar Church. Insulation of Canon law to the hierarchy and the abuse of Canon law by the hierarchy are the two main reasons for that. Media reported that the reason for removal of Archbishop Antony Kariyil was the liturgical issue in the Archeparchy, but no changes in the liturgical dispensations were mentioned in the letter in this regard. The method adopted by the Nuncio to remove the Vicar of the Major Archbishop of the Archeparchy of the Ernakulam-Angamaly, which is a sui iuris church is the best example of abuse of Canon law.

4. Accountability is most important for transparency
Cardinal George Alencherry is facing trials in corruption cases in Indian courts for the last four years. It is understood that all the internal enquiry committee reports such as Internal enquiry report of the Syro Malabar Synod, Maramparambil commission by the Archdiocese, report of  KPMG appointed by Holy See and Inchody commission, found that there were malpractices, misuses of power and corruption were happened. But some of them were still not published. The Church is the people of God and the money from the faithful was spent as the expenses of those enquiry commissions and their expenses. I believe that those reports should be published. No confidentiality can be claimed as it directly affects the laity and the assets of the Archdiocese. Your Holiness has taken measures to ensure transparency in the Institute for the Works of the Religion (Vatican Bank) and it started to report to European MoneyVal and I wish such a transparent system should be implemented in our church as well. But, the Synod of Syro Malabar Church has not taken any measures to ensure transparency and has no moral strength to take responsibility for their actions. 

5. Misuse of power is deadly
Now, the criminal cases against the Cardinal George Alencherry are at a crucial point. So, the removal of the Vicar of the Major Archbishop and the Curia can only be evaluated as a move of back door interference to weaken the cases. Since the canonical bodies are constituted according to the Canon Law and Canon law prohibits any clergy to act against hierarchy, no clergy afraid of the actions against them will stand up against the corrupt hierarchy. Oriental congregation has given a clear signal that they will protect the corrupt hierarchy by the removal of the Vicar of the Major Archbishop of the Archeparchy of the Ernakulam-Angamaly without mentioning any specific reason and appointed Archbishop Andrew Thazhath, who also supported the Cardinal George Alencherry as a member of the permanent synod. Thus Canon Law itself is misused as an insulation for corruption and abuse of power and even to harass those who stand up against the corrupt hierarchy. The Synod of the Major Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly miserably failed to carry out its responsibilities to follow truth and justice.

6. No transparency, No credibility
Our younger generation is monitoring all the situations and asking us about the corruption in the  governance of our church and we are struggling to explain it to them. They say that our church is also corrupt, just as any other political organisation, and we are speechless when they ask about the Synodal Church. We lost credibility as a church.

7. Our Prayer:
I understand that the theological and liturgical explanations and requests were already submitted to Your Holiness by the priests and other canonical bodies from the Archdiocese. But as a last resort to protect our catholic faith and ensure the accountability and transparency in our mother church, with most respectfully I pray to Your Holiness to consider the above facts as well as considering the complexity of the situation, denial of natural justice, constitutional freedom, legal compliance, freedom of expression and humanitarian consideration by issuing a directive on the following aspects :-

(i) have mercy on us to accept our sacrifice and generously facilitate us, the faithful of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese to continue the mass versus populum

(ii) assure that the canon law is not abused to protect the corrupt people in the hierarchy or blackmail or punish any member of clergy or faithful who pointed out the evils in the church

(iii) publish all reports (Internal enquiry report of the Syro Malabar Synod, Maramparambil commission by the Archdiocese, report of  KPMG appointed by Holy See and Inchody commission) on the financial issues of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archeparchy and take appropriate actions to ensure the accountability and transparency in the Syro Malabar Church to regain it's lost credibility

(iv) help us to witness Jesus as he says, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" to our younger generation to carry the catholic faith ahead.

At a time when the Universal catholic church is preparing for a Synod calling to listen to everyone and asking to journey together, we are obliged to walk with the Holiness and with the Universal Catholic Church.

Yours in Christ,

George Palissery.
Faithful in the Archdiocese of Ernakulam - Angamaly.