Clergy in the Syro-Malabar Church’s primatial see in India ended a protest outside the archbishop’s residence after agreeing a truce with the new diocesan leadership. Source: The Tablet.
A group of 21 priests of the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly began a prayer vigil and fast outside the residence on January 9, while 54 bishops attended the Church’s 6-11 January Synod – its highest decision-making authority as one of the 23 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches.
They were protesting disciplinary proceedings against clergy who oppose the “uniform rite” of the Syro-Malabar liturgy, and demanded the removal of priests appointed to the diocesan curia by the former apostolic administrator Bishop Bosco Puthur.
On January 11, police arrested 20 priests who resisted removal from the residence in Kochi, in the southern state of Kerala. Footage of the confrontation also circulated online, drawing crowds to the protests around the entrance gate, with 200 others also arrested during the unrest.
A police sub-inspector alleged the priests, who were gathered illegally, had attacked him, tore his uniform, pushed him down and he sustained a fracture to his ribs and bruises to his elbow, chest and wrist.
The priests filed a complaint to the state police chief and other civil authorities, reporting that 10 of them were injured in the clash.
At a meeting overnight on Sunday, the priests agreed to end their protests after Archbishop Joseph Pamplany of Tellicherry, the newly-appointed vicar and apostolic administrator of the archeparchy, agreed to some of their demands and to further talks on January 20.
The Synod, which also met in Kochi, had appointed Archbishop Pamplany after Bishop Puthur resigned in December. Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil, the Syro-Malabar primate, nominally heads the archeparchy.
After the four-hour meeting with Archbishop Pamplany and the district collector, the protesters said they had agreed to return to their parishes on the understanding that the archeparchy would cease disciplinary proceedings against priests and replace the staff of its curial bodies.
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Syro-Malabar leadership agrees truce with rebel priests to end protest (By Rita Joseph, The Tablet)
