The group of 21 priests were holding a protest prayer vigil during the meeting of the Church’s synod in Kochi on 6-11 January, opposing the imposition of the “uniform rite” of the Syro-Malabar liturgy in the diocese.
They said police had appeared at 5am on 11 January and forcibly dragged them away to the nearby St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica. They complained of “police excess” in their submission to the Police Complaints Authority, the Kerala Human Rights Commission and the state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Fr Jose Vailikodath, one of the complainants, said 11 priests including Fr Sebastian Thalian, who is over 70, were “verbally abused and roughly handled resulting in injuries like fractures and ligament tear”. Among the other complainants were Fr Sebastian Thalian, Fr Paul Chittilappally, Fr Jerry Njaliath and Fr Rajan Punnakkal, who apparently suffered a fracture in his hand.
However, the Church’s media commission responded in a social media post on 18 January, declaring that creating a law and order problem merited punishment. It alleged that the priests understood “that their demands were not legally sustainable [and were] engaged in a conspiracy to achieve their goals by any means, resulting in the ‘drama’ of a ‘seizure’ of the Archbishop’s House”.
Reports of police action drew large crowds of lay people from across the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, who clashed with police and broke through the gate of the archbishop’s residence. Police later filed rioting and unlawful assembly charges against 20 priests and almost 200 lay people.
The commission said that priests had violated law and order and challenged the police who “meticulously evacuated” the clergy from the scene. It claimed that “some priests, who did not even sustain minor injuries, were showcased in the basilica courtyard without medical examination, trying to inflame passions and put pressure on the police and district administration to meet their demands”.
It claimed that their “cunning strategy”, in which a number of nuns also took part, had “failed miserably” and diminished public respect for clergy and religious.
“It is profoundly sad and shameful for the Church that some newly-ordained priests were involved in breaking the gates of the archeparchial centre,” it said.
“Seizing the residence of the apostolic administrator in his absence and without any specific reason, necessitating police action, and inciting public sentiment by spreading the narrative of police brutality was the current agenda.”
The commission said the public would be astonished to learn that the riot originated in a liturgical dispute, as clergy defy the synod’s order to adopt the “uniform rite” of the Holy Qurbana in which the Liturgy of the Eucharist is celebrated ad orientem, preferring to maintain the versus populum Mass.
Archbishop Joseph Pamplany, the newly-appointed vicar and apostolic administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly, seemed to have brokered a new truce on 12 January in a late-night meeting with rebel priests. However, further talks planned for 20 January did not take place as planned.