The Samyukta Sabha Samrakshana Samithi (Forum for protection of archdiocese), a group of lay people in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, has called upon the faithful to cooperate with the emergency meeting of the Synod of Bishops that gets under way on Monday.
At the same time, there are also calls from different groups to replace the current leadership to resolve the problems confronting the archdiocese.
The emergency synod meeting is being convened on express orders from Rome after Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry and permanent synod members met senior Church officials in Rome in the first week of May. The Major Archbishop will inaugurate the synod meeting, being attended by 56 bishops from India and abroad.
The Sabha Samrakashana Samithi supports synodal decisions on issues such as unified mass and said those opposed to synodal decisions had already declared themselves guilty and did not want a solution to the issues confronting the archdiocese. The group threatened to publish the names of priests who had been working against the synod, said Mathai Muthirenthi, general convenor of the Samithi.
An association of St. Thomas Christians Mar Thoma Nazrani Sangham, which is supportive of the synod and archdiocesan administration, called for implementation of the unified mass immediately as 34 of the 35 dioceses in the church had accepted the synodal decision on the issue. However, the Nazrani Sangham demanded that a papal delegate, preferably from Europe, should be appointed to implement the synodal decision on unified mass as the current leadership by the apostolic administrator and earlier metropolitan vicar had failed in their mission so far.
Meanwhile, groups that have staunchly opposed the synodal decision on mass from the beginning – Athiroopatha Samrakshana Samithi and Almaya Munnettam – have demanded that a new bishop, selected from the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, be appointed to resolve the issue. The person being appointed should be a holy person, knowledgeable, familiar with the problems and sympathetic to the voice of the archdiocese. The groups have also reiterated they will only accept a fully people-facing mass and not the synodal mass.