Your Eminence, 24 August 2021
Dear Major Archbishop,
As we are drawing nearer to a decision in the matter of liturgy, we the following bishops, hasten to submit before you a few points we already raised in the Synod and respectfully request you to consider that Patris corde. It goes without saying that is our holy tradition that we, all members of the Synod, always obey the Holy Father and the Apostolic See.
Any decision to be taken should focus on the unity of hearts and strengthen the communion of our Church. We believe that this is not a matter to be decided by majority or by voting. Instead, we should have a greater sense of pastoral solicitude and sensibility towards evangelization. If we could reach a consensus text, as below, it would accommodate all members and will be perfectly in line with the exhortation of the Holy Father and the Congregation.
“The Synod wholeheartedly accepts the approved new Text of the Qurbana which got the recognitio from the Apostolic See and unanimously decides that it will be inaugurated on 28 November 2021, first Sunday of Advent. The rubrics of uniform mode of celebration for the Divine Liturgy unanimously decided by Synod of Bishops in November 1999 and recently reconfirmed in January 2020 (the celebrant shall face the faithful at the Bema during the Liturgy of the Word, turn towards the Altar - in the same direction that the faithful are facing - for the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and once again face the faithful during the concluding rites after Holy Communion) shall be followed. However, the Synod takes into consideration the difficulties being encountered in implementing it immediately in some eparchies and in the mission areas, and exhorts the respective eparchial bishops to initiate proper catechesis and implement it as far as possible, as the Synod had observed in 2020, not to “impose but to introduce” such changes and respecting the options given to the individual celebrants. In those places the dispensation according to can. 1538 may be applied for “the spiritual good of the Christian faithful, a just and reasonable cause”.
If the decision cannot be taken in this line, we would like that Your Eminence, may please refer the matter to Rome expressing our difficulties, and register a dissenting note, enumerating our difficulties, as we did when we decided the matter of mentioning St. Joseph in the Qurbana (“ … with prior approval of the Apostolic See. However, due to theological reasons a few bishops requested to register a dissenting note”- ref. reports, XXII Synod 2014, Session, Synodal News vol. 22, no.1-2, pp.30-31)
Thanking you for the kind attention,
Mar Antony Kariyil CMI, Metropolitan Vicar, Ernakulam-Angamaly
Mar Pauly Kannookadan, Irinjalakuda
Mar Sebastian Adayanthrath, Mandya
Mar Ephrem Nariculam, Chanda
Mar Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, Faridabad
Mar Jose Puthenveettil, Auxiliary Bishop Faridabad
Mar Jose Chittooparambil CMI, Rajkot
Mar Jacob Thoomkuzhy, Emeritus Archbishop of Trichur
Mar Gregory Karotemprel, CMI, Emeritus Bishop of Rajkot
Mar Thomas Chakiath, Emeritus Auxiliary Bishop, Ernakulam-Angamaly
Mar Vijay Anand Nedumpuram Emeritus CMI, Chanda
Mar Dominic Kokkatt, Emeritus Bishop of Gorakpur