As the stand-off between two sections of churchgoers in Kerala’s Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese over liturgical practices rages on, a pontifical delegate who visited the St Mary’s Basilica in Ernakulam was stopped by protestors on Monday, August 14. Archbishop Cyril Vasil, an archbishop of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church, was appointed on August 1 to study the conflict and suggest amicable solutions.
On Monday morning, Vasil arrived at the main gate of the Basilica, carrying the Eucharist in hand. However, he was stopped at the gate by protestors from the Athiroopatha Samrakshana Samithi, who oppose the unified mass. There was heavy police deployment at the church and following the impasse at the main gate, the police used force to lead Vasil inside through a side gate.
Inside the church, Vasil first met with Fr Antony Poothavelil, the parish vicar of St Mary’s Basilica. From there, he went to the Basilica church, where he said a short prayer. Following his departure, members of the Athiroopatha Samrakshana Samithi also entered the church and conducted a brief prayer.
A day before his Basilica visit, Archbishop Vasil had conducted a unified mass at the St John Church near Cochin University, under the Ernakulam-Angamaly diocese.
The Syro Malabar church in Kerala has been embroiled in controversies and conflicts for the past few years, and in 2021, a Synod of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church decided to implement a uniform procedure for conducting the holy mass from November 2021 – priests facing the altar for the most duration of the mass. However, this was strongly opposed by many, especially those from the Ernakulam-Angamaly diocese, which had until then conducted the mass with priests facing the congregation. Following this, disagreement rose among the ranks of priests and laity, leading to clashes in several places.
In December 2022, on the eve of Christmas, unruly scenes played out in the Ernakulam Basilica, where members of the two factions got into a scuffle, following which two masses in both formats were conducted in the church simultaneously. While one group started the holy mass facing the congregation, the other, led by the cathedral administrator Father Antony Poothavelil, faced the altar and started the mass a few minutes later. Things took a turn for the worse on December 24, when the police had to force the priests and laity outside the church and lock the gates. The church has remained closed ever since.