Bishop Joseph Srampickal, head of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain, issued an Oct. 7 circular letter in response to protesters who want to retain their membership in India’s Syro-Malabar Archeparchy of Kottayam while residing in the U.K.
The Kottayam archeparchy is a unique ecclesiastical jurisdiction because although it is part of the Syro-Malabar Church — one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome — it was established in 1911 solely for members of the ancient Knanaya people.
Srampickal said that after Pope Francis created the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain in 2016, all the nearly 80,000 Syro-Malabar Catholics in the U.K., including Knanaya Catholics from the Kottayam archeparchy, fell under its jurisdiction.
The bishop’s intervention followed an Oct. 4 demonstration outside an event hosted by the eparchy in Birmingham, England, which was billed as a protest “against the human right violations, harassment, and bullying of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain.”
The protest took place after a Knanaya Catholic said he had been denied a traditional Knanaya wedding in the U.K. because he did not want to be transferred canonically to the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain, which would cut his official tie with the Kottayam archeparchy and changed his relationship to the local Latin Catholic parish where he grew up.
Daron Siby, a 26-year-old Knanaya Catholic, was born in India’s southern Kerala state, the heartland of the Syro-Malabar Church, and baptized in a parish belonging to the Archeparchy of Kottayam. He moved to the U.K. as a child in 2004.
His fiancée was also a Knanaya Catholic baptized in a parish belonging to the Kottayam archeparchy.
Siby and his fiancée planned to marry in August 2025. They initially hoped for a traditional Knanaya Catholic ceremony, which is longer and more elaborate than a typical Syro-Malabar wedding ceremony.
But they concluded that was not possible, because while there are Knanaya missions in the U.K. that cater to the Knanaya community, they operate under the authority of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain and lack formal canonical ties to the Kottayam archeparchy.
“For us, joining those missions would have meant canonically transferring into the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain and losing our official link to Kottayam, something we could not in conscience accept,” Siby told The Pillar Oct. 8 via WhatsApp.
The couple had grown up worshiping in Latin Rite parishes and therefore decided to undergo marriage preparation at a Latin Catholic church, with a view to a Latin Catholic wedding ceremony.
But the process was halted after the Latin Catholic parish began processing their wedding documents.
“We were told that because we were baptized in the Syro-Malabar Church, we were not permitted to marry under the Latin Rite unless we obtained permission from Bishop Joseph Srampickal,” Siby said.
“He later insisted that for the marriage to be valid, we would have to join the Eparchy of Great Britain, essentially register under his jurisdiction, otherwise the wedding would be considered invalid. That was the point at which everything fell apart.”
Siby contacted Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, the apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, in May 2025, who directed him to contact the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.
In June, Siby received a response from the dicastery, which said that as Knanaya Catholics are an integral part of the Syro-Malabar Church, efforts to maintain their distinct identity should align with the broader liturgical and spiritual framework of the Eastern Catholic Church.
Siby said that while the response showed the Vatican’s theological reasoning, it did not address the pastoral difficulties the policy poses for Knanaya Catholics living outside of India, who have practiced their faith for years in Latin Catholic parishes.
He and his fiancée ultimately had a traditional Knanaya wedding, officiated by a priest from the community, at an Anglican Church of England parish in August, though Srampickal’s recent letter raised canonical norms which would seem to impact the wedding’s validity.
In his circular letter, Srampickal noted that according to canon law, marriages of a man and woman from the same Eastern Catholic Church are ordinarily only valid if they are “blessed by their proper pastor” — the priest canonically responsible for their pastoral care.
“In Great Britain, the priests appointed by the Bishop of the Eparchy of Great Britain are the proper pastors of the Syro Malabar faithful, including the Knanaya faithful,” he said.
Siby told The Pillar that he was saddened by Srampickal’s letter.
“Before the establishment of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain in 2016, there was never any conflict,” he said.
“We lived in peace within our local Latin parishes, fully integrated into parish life. For decades, Syro-Malabar and Knanaya Catholics in the U.K. were able to receive the sacraments, baptism, confirmation, and marriage under the Latin Rite without issue.”
“We prepared for marriage through our local parishes, celebrated weddings before Latin priests, and our documents were accepted back home in India, including by the Archeparchy of Kottayam, the mother diocese of the Knanaya community. Everything functioned harmoniously, our faith was strong, our unity intact, and our identity respected.”
“Now, that peace has been broken. Since the creation of the eparchy, and even more so since this circular was released, the faithful have been told that to receive any sacrament, whether marriage, baptism, or even a funeral, they must register with and formally join the Eparchy of Great Britain. The message is simple and cruel: if you don’t join, you will not be given the sacraments.”
Part of the issue, according to Srampickal, is that the Archeparchy of Kottayam has personal jurisdiction of Knanaya Catholics — but only, he says, within the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church, namely, in India.
But the bishop argues, outside of India, Knanaya Catholics belong to ordinary Syro-Malabar eparchies.
“Beyond the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church, all the faithful of the Syro Malabar Church including the Syro-Malabar Knanaya faithful are subject to the Syro-Malabar eparchies erected by the Supreme Pontiff in Rome,” he wrote.
Addressing how Knanaya Catholics can maintain their identity while belonging to the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain, Srampickal said: “The Syro-Malabar Knanaya community is an integral part of the Syro-Malabar sui iuris Church, sharing its liturgy, theology, spirituality, and discipline.”
“However, the Syro Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain is committed to preserve and flourish the Knanaya heritage and culture within the Eparchy. To attain this goal, I have established 15 Knanaya missions or proposed missions to preserve the Knanaya heritage.”
“Even though the Knanaya faithful in Great Britain are members of the Knanaya missions or proposed missions in Great Britain, they continue to belong to the Knanaya community … Through active participation in the established Knanaya missions, and proposed Missions of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain, all the Syro-Malabar Knanaya faithful in Great Britain can fully live out the Catholic faith and preserve the Knanaya heritage in communion with the Universal Catholic Church.”
Siby said he disagreed with the bishop’s reasoning.
“The Knanaya have a 1,700-year history and a unique identity formally recognised by the Vatican through Pope Pius X’s 1911 decree establishing the Archeparchy of Kottayam pro gente suddistica, meaning for the Knanaya people,” he commented.
“The sole purpose of this decree was to preserve our faith, our traditions, and our heritage within the Catholic communion. For over a century, the Archeparchy of Kottayam has been the spiritual home of Knanaya Catholics worldwide.”
“Bishop Srampickal’s circular, however, quietly dismantles this identity. By declaring that all Syro-Malabar faithful in the U.K., including the Knanaya, now fall exclusively under the Eparchy of Great Britain, he effectively severs our canonical link to Kottayam.”
“His claim that ‘Knanaya missions’ in the U.K. preserve our heritage is misleading; these missions are not under [the authority of the] Kottayam [eparchy] at all, but directly under the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain.”
Siby added: “Once an individual signs and joins this eparchy, they are no longer under Kottayam jurisdiction. Their sacramental and canonical records move under a different authority. This is not preservation, it is assimilation disguised as pastoral care.”
“If this continues, within 10 years the Knanaya identity in the U.K. will be erased. New generations will grow up without any formal or canonical link to their ancestral diocese. Families who spent their lives faithfully connected to Kottayam will find that connection quietly removed by administrative control.”
In his circular letter, the bishop said that Syro-Malabar Catholics born in India but now resident in Britain belong to the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Great Britain “by virtue of domicile or quasi-domicile status” — and not, as Siby has indicated, by registration.
“If they return permanently to India or elsewhere, they will have the domicile change based on the same principle,” Srampickal wrote.
According to Eastern Catholic canon law, domicile means an intention of permanent residence, while quasi-domicile refers to residence in a place for at least three months with an intention to stay for a certain period.
Canon 916 §1 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches says that “through both domicile and quasi-domicile each person acquires his or her local hierarch and pastor of the Church sui iuris in which he or she is enrolled.”
But Siby questioned Srampickal’s reference to domicile and quasi-domicile status — and objected to the bishop’s insistence that Syro-Malabar Catholics should register in parish or mission communities.
“If that is true, then additional registration is meaningless,” he said. “There is no canonical or theological basis for forcing people to sign forms in order to receive sacraments if they are already members by virtue of residence. The insistence on ‘registration’ therefore reveals the real motive, not pastoral order, but administrative power.”
The Vicariate Apostolic of Kottayam established by Pius X in 1911 was elevated to an archeparchy in May 2005. The Archeparchy of Kottayam has been led since December 2005 by Archbishop Mathew Moolakkatt, O.S.B.
Membership in the archeparchy is determined by birth into a family with a Knanaya Catholic father and mother. As membership is connected to family lineage, young Knanaya Catholics are expected to marry someone within the same community, a norm known as endogamy. If a Knanaya Catholic weds a Catholic from another diocese, membership in the archeparchy is relinquished.