Chaos erupts in Kerala as Syro-Malabar Church faces internal conflict ahead of Pope election

Time of India

17-05-2025

As the conclave of Catholic cardinals to elect a new pope was set to begin in Rome, ugly scenes were unfolding at a bishop's office in Kerala.
Archbishop Joseph Pamplany
of the
Syro-Malabar Church
, the largest communion of Catholics outside the Western church and a major group of Christians in India, was heckled, threatened and insulted by a group of the faithful on May 6.
Pamplany was recently tasked with ending hostilities between two warring factions. The unruly incident of May 6 was the latest in a series of disruptions that often spiralled into violence, verbal abuse and toppling of altar tables.
All of this has been unfolding in the context of a broader shift in the political and demographic heft of the church in Kerala, having triggered a realignment of the Christian voting bloc away from its traditional orientation. This has national implications, catalysing the rise of BJP as a third front in a state where it struggled for decades. Winning in Kerala is key to its ambition of being seen as a truly national party.
Beyond political implications, the scuffle, scrimmage and skirmishes are reducing the Church's appeal to a younger generation, throwing into doubt the long-term future of one of Kerala's, and India's, most economically advantaged minorities.
The face-off
St Mary's Basilica in Kochi is a major spiritual centre of the Syro-Malabar Church. For the past 900 days, the Basilica, believed to have been constructed in 1112, has not seen Holy Mass, the most important prayer ritual for Catholics, being performed. Instead, it witnessed fights and police action.
So, what is the mess all about?
The Syro-Malabar Church, which claims to have 5 million followers, is the largest in India. Among autonomous congregations under Roman Catholicism—those outside the direct rule of the pope but owe allegiance to him—it is the largest.
Members of this Church take pride in its apostolic origins. They believe St Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, landed on the Kerala coast and baptised their forefathers in the first century AD. This community, known as Nasranis or St Thomas Christians, pre-existed European colonialism, which fuelled evangelisation in South Asia. A large fraction of them came into the Catholic fold in the 17th century under the Portuguese influence and came to be known as the Syro-Malabar Church.
The present crisis stems from differing views on how Mass is celebrated. As an autonomous church within Roman Catholicism, the Syro-Malabar Church's council of bishops or synod has the power to decide on the liturgy—the rituals that make up worship.
In 2021, the synod decided that the priest, during Mass, would face the altar throughout barring the introductory prayer, Bible reading and conclusion. Whether the priest should face the altar or the congregation during Mass has been a touchy topic for aeons. Given its potential to create disquiet, each diocese was given a choice on the matter, until 2021.
A little liturgical history here. The Catholic mass celebration was altar-facing across the globe until the reformist second Vatican Council of 1962-65, which changed it, encouraging increased participation of people and allowing for vernacular languages.
St Thomas Christians traditionally used Syriac—an ancient dialect of Eastern Middle Aramaic—for worship owing to their connections with the Church of East. But in 1965, in step with the global Catholic Church, the Syro-Malabar Church departed from its age-old,
altar-facing Mass
in Syriac and adopted a new, people-facing Malayalam liturgy.
This was not agreeable to a section of the clergy, who argued this was against their distinct heritage and culture. This school of thought, called 'Chaldeanism', has remained dormant for decades.
This faultline suddenly became a trigger for public acrimony and law and order problems after the August 2021 synod.
The epicentre of the rebellion against the synod's decision is the ErnakulamAngamaly Archdiocese, Kerala's largest, with 655,000 members. A vast majority of the 469 priests and the faithful spread across 220 parishes vociferously protested the new diktat.
The rebel priests and the faithful under the banner Archdiocese Protection Forum have since frequently clashed with prosynod priests and their supporters, each disrupting the celebration of Mass by the rival faction.
'Except one, every priest in this diocese is ideologically against the altar-facing Mass,' says Fr Augustine Vattoli, a rebel priest. Crucially, they also allege that the hasty enforcement of liturgical uniformity is a diversionary tactic.
Questionable deals
The allegation is that the changes were designed to take the public's attention away from a financial scandal.
Fingers are pointed at
Cardinal George Alencherry
, their former head priest, who resigned, citing ill-health, in December 2023.
Two weeks ahead of the synod decision,
Kerala High Court
had ordered that Cardinal Alencherry should stand trial in all cases linked to certain land deals that shook the Syro-Malabar Church in 2018.
Priests and the laity had raised questions about these transactions. A panel appointed on their insistence found that the land deals resulted in a loss of `90 crore for the diocese.
Alencherry had to step away from diocesan affairs and
Bishop Jacob Manathodath
was appointed as the administrator, who brought in KPMG for a forensic audit. The confidential KPMG report, which ET has reviewed, highlights lack of transparency, absence of due deliberations, contradictions in the cardinal's statements and process lapses in transactions.
Sabu Jose, a prominent pro-Alencherry voice, dismisses any suggestion of a crisis in the Church. 'A small group of people with vested interests create trouble. Their objective was to stop the Syro-Malabar Church from becoming a patriarchate,' he says. Patriarchate is the highest status for a church within Roman Catholicism.
Jose says the rebel priests who do not want to see Alencherry as a powerful bishop patriarch have unleashed a smear campaign. 'These priests did not even listen to Pope Francis who pleaded with them to align with the synod's decision on liturgy,' says Jose.
Alencherry is still embroiled in at least half-a-dozen cases. After the adverse High Court verdict, he approached the Supreme Court, seeking exemption from appearing in land-related cases. His petition was dismissed. A few months later, the SC also dismissed his appeal, seeking the quashing of criminal proceedings. ET's mail to the PRO of the Syro-Malabar Church has remained unanswered at the time of going to press.
Will the pope intervene?
After the synod's decision and the subsequent hullabaloo, the alleged land irregularities, enquiries and court cases have seemingly faded from public memory. Earlier this year, the synod appointed Archbishop Pamplany as a mediator to resolve the liturgical dispute.
On May 7, Pamplany faced the ire of a group who alleged that he was lenient towards the rebelling priests.
Earlier, Pope Francis tried but could not bring harmony, having appealed to the congregation through a video message in December 2023.
His successor Leo XIV began his papacy by saying, 'Peace be with you all.' Can he bring peace to the Syro-Malabar Church?
He had visited Kerala many years ago as Father Robert Prevost, head of the Order of St Augustine. In many issues, including matters of liturgy, the Vatican's scope of intervention has some limitations due to the autonomous nature of the Syro-Malabar Church. However, his stature and the initial enthusiasm around the new pope could help Leo XIV stop a likely split in the SyroMalabar Church, the first in four centuries.
State of the Church
All of this is unfolding at a time when the broader Christian community is plagued by multiple problems.
Some worries stem from new socio-economic realities. The spurt in migration to western countries and low birth rate have hit its numerical strength. About 5% of the faithful have migrated to North America, Australia and Europe. They are unlikely to return.
The late demographer KC Zachariah had predicted that the community would enter zero population growth rate or negative population regime, terming it the 'Parsi Syndrome,' a reference to a similar dwindling that happened in that community in India.
Then there was a sexual abuse case involving Bishop Franco Mulakkal. Although Mulakkal and the nun who accused him of rape were under the Jalandhar diocese, which is not part of the Syro-Malabar Church, they were born in this community. Five nuns staged a fortnight-long sit-in protest, demanding investigation against Mulakkal. He was jailed and later acquitted by court. He subsequently resigned.
A section of the Catholic Church has also raised the spectre of 'love jihad'. This has led to the creation of a BJP-leaning group called the Christian Alliance for Social Action (CASA), which led to tensions with Muslims, damaging the communal harmony that long existed in Kerala.
The Church traditionally balanced their relationship with the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the CPM-led Left Front fairly well. That, too, is changing. The first Lok Sabha victory for BJP from Kerala was partly attributed to Christian support. BJP's film star candidate, Suresh Gopi, won in Thrissur, which has around 3 lakh Christian voters. George Kurian, BJP's other Malayali Union minister, happens to be a Syro-Malabar Catholic.
That is a lot of moving parts for Kerala's Christians. For starters, the new pope could do well by fixing the Syro-Malabar problem.