By Verghese V Joseph –
Calling for peace and unity in the Eastern-rite Church in India, the bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church in the North East of the country issued a statement on July 12, saying “the recent incidents have threatened the unity of the Church which they love so much.”
“Human needs are growing, and Christian anxieties are multiplying over the face of the earth,” said Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati. “This is not the time to allow little differences to divide us and make our work ineffective.”
The bishops said they “did not want to be judgmental” about issues where there are differences in opinion within the Church.
According to Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, the retired archbishop of Guwahati, “All we want is that the Church that gave spiritual nourishment and missionary motivation to us in our young days should lose none of its glory, nor miss any opportunity for making further contribution to the common future of the Universal Church.”
The bishops also urged all the missionaries of Syro-Malabar origin around the world to “join them in prayer for the speedy healing of all hurt sentiments related to the recent painful happenings in their Church that kept the entire body of the faithful in agonizing anxiety.”
This comes in the face a series of scandals back home in Kerala. Early this month, more than 250 priests defied a decision of the Vatican’s Oriental Congregation to reinstate Cardinal George Alencherry as their archbishop. The priests of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, the seat of the major archbishop of the Kerala state-based Church, gathered July 2 and refused to accept his return. They also sought Pope Francis’ intervention to end a deepening crisis in India’s Eastern Rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.
The cardinal was removed from administrative responsibilities of the archdioceses a year ago following a public allegation by priests that he sold off land that incurred a loss for the archdiocese.
The priests now say that a crisis of faith emerged in the Church when on June 26 the Oriental Congregation reinstated the cardinal without providing any explanation for what they regarded as “moral decadence” linked to the land deal. The clerics said “even ordinary faithful” doubt the morality of reinstating the cardinal.