The Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church has approved the resolution of a liturgy dispute that had troubled the India-based Eastern Catholic Church for the past five years. Source: UCA News.
“It is true. The Synod of Bishops has unanimously ratified the peace formula and ended the decades-long liturgy dispute in the Church,” a Church source familiar with Synod decisions said yesterday.
The August 18-29 Synod of the Church, based in the southern Indian state of Kerala, considered the resolution an “inclusive formula” involving all stakeholders, the source said, adding that the resolution was approved on August 19, the second day of the 10-day Synod.
“The ratification of the peace formula was one of the agenda items on priority before the prelates because the dispute had become a scandal for the Church and the Catholic community as a whole,” the source said.
A Synod is held twice a year, and the current one took place a month after a team of bishops, through dialogue with dissenting priests and laity, agreed to end the dispute.
The Synod members, 52 of the 65 bishops of the Church’s 33 dioceses, appreciated the path of “dialogue and discussions” that involved all sections of the Church, priests, religious, and the laity, the source said.
The Synod’s approval is viewed as the final step in resolving the dispute that has become a scandal in the Church.
The dispute simmered in the Church for over 50 years, but erupted in 2021 when priests and laity in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese publicly challenged a Synod decree that instructed all dioceses to follow the common liturgy it approved.
They refused to follow the Synod-approved rubrics, which required priests to face the altar during the Eucharistic prayer, and insisted on continuing with an earlier liturgical practice where the priests faced the people throughout the Mass.
The settlement resolution allowed priests in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese to continue with their liturgy and asked them to celebrate one Synod-approved Mass in all parishes on Sundays and major feast days.
FULL STORY
India’s Eastern Rite synod brings curtain down on liturgy dispute (UCA News)
