Syro-Malabar dissident priests are set to defy an ultimatum from Pope Francis' envoy threatening them with "major excommunication" unless the rebels comply with the Vatican's directive starting this Sunday.
"Any disobedience to this order will be considered voluntary, personal and culpable disobedience to the Holy Father," papal delegate Abp. Cyril Vasil warned priests of the Syro-Malabar Church's Ernakulam-Angamaly archeparchy in a letter published Thursday.
Vasil said that defiance of the Vatican's diktat to implement the liturgical formula for the Holy Qurbana (Holy Mass) "will be considered a serious delict against the Holy Father with subsequent canonical penal sanctions."
The priests are revolting against the imposition of liturgical uniformity, which requires them to face the people (ad populum) during the Liturgy of the Word and face the altar (ad orientem) during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Major Excommunication
Vasil has threatened to slap a "major excommunication" prescribed in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (c. 1438) if priests refused to "commemorate the legitimate hierarchs during the celebration of the Holy Qurbana."
"By this letter, I order each of you personally to commemorate the pope, the major archbishop, and the apostolic administrator in all liturgical celebrations as prescribed in the liturgical texts," the papal delegate wrote.
According to canon 1438, a priest "who intentionally omits the legally prescribed commemoration of the hierarch" in the Holy Mass and does not reconsider after a warning "is to be punished with an appropriate penalty, not excluding a major excommunication."
"I also ask you not to distort the intention of the Holy Father expressed clearly in this letter with subjective interpretations but rather to use all means to explain the content directly and clearly to help the people of God understand the will of the Holy Father," Vasil stressed.
Deportation Demanded
Protestors responded by burning the archbishop's missive and uploading the photographs to social media. Parishioners in the troubled archdiocese also urged India's president, Droupadi Murmu, to deport Abp. Vasil, a foreigner, from India.
"Any attempt of Mr. Cyril Vasil to execute [the] decree of Syro-Malabar Church is a violation of his visa norms. In such a case, Mr. Cyril Vasil is liable to be deported [and declared] persona non grata," the Almaya Munnetta Samiti, a lay organization, said in its representation.
The Almaya Munnetta Samiti further alleged that the state government's provision of a police force to support Vasil in exercising his powers against Indian citizens in their territory under a mandate from the Vatican City is unconstitutional and an abuse of power.
"There is no room for Abp. Vasil to give an order to the priests of the archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly," Fr. Joyce Kaithakottil, a biblical scholar and priest from the diocese, wrote in a defiant letter to the papal delegate.
The priest's letter, circulated among Syro-Malabar priests and laity, categorically stated that the opponents of the contested formula had made a "conscientious decision" not to follow any decision "violating all the procedures and neglecting the spirit of the Synodal Way."
Priests Challenge Papal Delegate
"Our church is a sui iuris church, and we have requested many times to the synod to reconsider the decision and continue the dialogue and reach an amicable solution acceptable to all of us," Fr. Kaithakottil insisted.
The priest asked for official confirmation of Abp. Vasil's authority, demanding that the Slovakian prelate, who heads the eparchy of Košice, "publish the letter of the Holy Father appointing you as the pontifical delegate."
"You have told us that there is no space for dialogue and categorically declared that you have come to implement it. Are you going the way of Pope Francis or in the way of Hitler?" Fr. Kaithakottil asked.
"Vasil can threaten priests but not the people," Fr. Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the presbytery council in the archdiocese, told UCA News. "Considering our liturgy as a variant can easily solve the issues."
"Our strength is in our unity to stand together for unity," he said. "Four hundred and fifty priests and half a million faithful will stand for Holy Mass facing the people, respecting Pope Francis but negating the fraudulent and cheating way of making a decision on liturgy by our synod."
"It is wrong to say our priests are not praying for them. I take their names in every Mass and there is no confusion about it. When I interacted with Vasil, I had specifically informed him that names of hierarchs are taken, even invited him to attend our Mass," Mundadan added.
No Compromise
A Syro-Malabar priest told Church Militant that it was almost certain that the rebels would not back down because of the threat of excommunication.
"There is no division among them. If there were factions between priests or between the laity or between the priests and laity, the revolt would have failed. But they are united, and while the Vatican can threaten the clergy, Pope Francis can do nothing to the laity," he said.
The priest explained that the division was not merely liturgical but historical and based on a caste-like segregation between the north and the south of the state of Kerala, where St. Thomas the Apostle baptized the first converts to Christianity after he arrived in A.D. 52.
Church historians note that the Christians of the south and the north constitute two distinct endogamous groups, with factors of purity and nobility exacerbating the split.
Christians from the south consider themselves to be descendants of Thomas of Cana, a Syrian Christian merchant magnate who arrived with Jewish-Christian families (early East Syriac Christian merchants) and priests from Persian Mesopotamia around A.D. 345.
The northern Christians claim to be descendants of the high-caste Hindu priestly families evangelized and baptized by St. Thomas the Apostle.
"The social status and historic wealth of the Christians from Ernakulam is also higher than other districts, and there is a sense that they are better than the others," the priest explained.
Meanwhile, a letter signed by 237 priests of Ernakulam Angamaly archdiocese has been handed to Abp. Vasil, urging him to study the possibility of accepting the archdiocese as a separate Oriental Catholic Church if no resolution regarding the liturgy can be reached.