Protesters Burn Archbishop’s Letter Calling for End to Liturgy Dispute [India]

The Pillar ^ | 10/3/22 | Luke Coppen

[marshmallow]

The majority of clergy in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese reject the ‘uniform mode’ of the Syro-Malabar Eucharistic liturgy.

Indian Catholics burned Saturday an archbishop’s letter instructing parishes to implement a new mode of celebrating the liturgy.

Laymen were pictured Oct. 1 setting light to the circular letter from Archbishop Andrews Thazhath outside Bishop’s House in Ernakulum, southern India.

Archbishop Thazhath, the apostolic administrator of the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, published the four-page letter on Sept. 30. He called on parishes to implement a decision taken by the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church to adopt a uniform mode of celebrating the Eucharistic liturgy, known as the Holy Qurbana.

The Syro-Malabar Church is the second-largest of the 23 self-governing Eastern Catholic Churches after the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The uniform mode was introduced in 1999 as a compromise between those who favored the Holy Qurbana celebrated ad orientem and those who preferred it celebrated versus populum. Under the “50:50 formula,” priests face the congregation during the Liturgy of the Word but turn east for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Pope Francis has endorsed the formula, which has been adopted in other Syro-Malabar dioceses. But the majority of clergy in the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese want to continue facing the people throughout the Eucharistic liturgy, a practice they have followed for the past 50 years.

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Yawn.