(LifeSiteNews) – An archbishop of the Eastern Rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has just resigned in India after pressure from the Apostolic Nuncio over liturgical controversies that centered on whether to face ad orientem during the Mass.
Archbishop Antony Kariyil, the vicar of the major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese in southern Kerala state, resigned on July 26, six days after meeting with the Apostolic Nuncio to India in New Delhi. Archdiocesan officials said the nuncio had given him a letter asking for his resignation.
According to a local report by UCANews, the archbishop initially refused on the grounds that no valid reason was cited for his resignation. Officials stated that he gave the nuncio a letter seeking to notify the Holy Father about the developments. However, the archbishop then resigned on July 26.
As LifeSiteNews reported earlier this year, for many decades, a liturgical dispute has been ongoing within the Syro-Malabar rite.
“From time immemorial, the Church of St. Thomas Christians and later, its continuation as the Syro-Malabar Church in the Catholic communion, celebrated the Eucharistic Liturgy ad orientem (facing the East/altar) as the Western Latin Rite also did,” Mar Joseph Srampickal, the first bishop of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain, told Catholic News Agency in late 2021.
After the liturgical changes in the Latin West following Vatican II, some eparchies of the Syro-Malabar Church began offering Mass facing the people, in imitation of the Latin Church. According to Mar Srampickal, however, this was done “without any proper discussions or deliberations with other eparchies.” Most eparchies continued offering Mass ad orientem.
In an attempt to address the liturgical differences among the eparchies, a 1999 Synod of the Syro-Malabar bishops decided on a liturgical compromise, stipulating that the priest “will face the congregation until the Eucharistic prayer, and then again from communion to the end of the Mass. From Eucharistic prayers until communion, the priest will face the altar.”
In July 2021, Pope Francis sent a letter to the Syro-Malabar Church, exhorting them to “proceed to a prompt implementation of the uniform mode of celebrating the Holy Qurbana, [the name for the Mass in the Syro-Malabar rite] for the greater good and unity of your Church.” Only a few weeks later, the Synod of the Syro-Malabar bishops confirmed the 1999 decision, seeking to implement it in all eparchies by April 2022.
Archbishop Kariyil, the metropolitan vicar of Ernakulam-Angamaly, granted his clergy a dispensation from the Synod’s decision when hundreds of priests objected, requesting to be allowed to continue offering Mass facing the people.
Pope Francis wrote to the Syro-Malabar Church again in March 2022 urging the adherence to the 2021 Synod decision, allowing for temporary dispensation from its implementation.
Archbishop Kariyil’s resignation is the latest development in the ongoing liturgical disputes of the Syro-Malabar Church.