Cardinal sabotaging Vatican exemption: laity forum

Pope Francis keen on unity over uniformity: senior priest

Almaya Munnettam, supported by a large number of priests and lay people in the Ernakulam-Angamaly Major Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church calling for more transparency in church administration, has said Major Archbishop Cardinal George Alencherry and his supporters are trying to sabotage the dispensation given by the Vatican to the major archdiocese to maintain status quo on the way the Holy Mass is celebrated.

Though a unified system of celebrating the Mass was to come into effect on November 28, the first Sunday of Advent, which heralds the beginning of the liturgical calendar, Irinjalakuda diocese, Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, Faridabad, and Delhi dioceses were exempted from the purview of the synodal decision taken in August this year. The Congregation for Oriental Churches directed that the local heads of dioceses could exempt dioceses from the decision of the synod in a time of crisis.The unified system of Mass involves the celebrant facing the congregation during the first half of the Mass and then turning away from the congregation during the consecration and rest of the Mass. However, some priests and laity in the dioceses such as Ernakulam-Angamaly, Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, and Thamarassery are learnt to have demanded continuing with the present system of the celebrant facing the congregation throughout the Mass, though only the first two dioceses have been given the dispensation by the local ordinary.

A senior priest of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese said Pope Francis had emphasised unity over uniformity.