Is Christ Divided? A Humble Petition to the Holy Father from Concerned Catholics of Delhi, India Is Christ Divided? A Humble Petition to the Holy Father from Concerned Catholics of Delhi, India Contents Petition Main 1 Discussion 1: Preposterous Claims 6 Discussion 2: Misuse of Rites and Sacraments 12 Discussion 3: Destruction of St John Pauls’s Kalyan Indult 17 introduction to Annexures A 21 A 1 Kalyan Indult and Clarification 22 A 2 Profiles of Petitioners 24 A 3 Events following Joint Pastoral Letter 26 A 4 Population Data Analyses 30 A 5 The Intrusion of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy 36 A 6 Eparchy in Delhi - Financial Aspects 40 A 7 Scandalising our Youth 42 A 8 Damage to Spiritual and Community Life 44 Introduction to Annexures H 46 H01 KCU Bombay Letter 1 May 74 1974 05 01 47 H02 Padiyara Visit to Delhi: Augustine Mathew 1976 10 50 H02 Padiyara Report 1980 53 H04 Latin Bishops against Multiple Jurisdiction 1984 02 07 77 H05 KCA Mds to Archbishop of Madras 1984 10 30 78 H06 KCA Mds to Bishop Pazhyathil of Irinjalakuda 1984 12 10 80 H07 KCA Mds to Bishop Pazhyathil of Irinjalakuda 1984 12 23 82 H08 Forty-four Priests Madras to Bishop Pazhyathil 1984 12 23 85 H09 One Priest Md to Bishop Pazhyathil 1985 01 05 86 H10 KCA Mds to CBCI Secretary General 1985 01 10 87 H11 KCA Mds to Bishop Pazhyathil of Irinjalakuda 1985 01 10 91 H12 Administrator Archdiocese of Bangalore 1985 02 12 93 H13 Archbishop Henry D’Souza 1985 03 06 95 H14 Bombay Resolution 6 Sep 87 1987 09 06 97 H15 Bombay Announcement of Eparchy Aug 88 1988 08 13 98 H16 Goregaon Resolution 1989 04 16 100 H17 ULF Bombay Background Note 5 October 1990 1990 10 05 101 H18 Cardinal Sodano’s letter and Pro-Nunco Cover 1993 10 25 105 H19 Delhi Synod findings No date 108 H20 Archbishop Vincent’s Decree 2005 06 15 111 H21 Eparch’s appeal for funds 2013 09 113 H22 Joint Pastoral Letter 2013 11 01 115 H23 Dr Joan Antony’s speech (abridged) 2013 11 24 119 H24 Memorandum to Archbishop Anil 2013 11 25 122 H25 Archbishop Anil’s Abeyance Order 2013 11 27 124 H26 SM Synod minutes 2013 12 01 125 H27 Note of Interpretation 2014 01 17 129 H28 Letter to Abp Anil about deadline 2014 01 23 131 H29 Response to Note of Interpretation 2014 01 23 133 H30 JPL Abeyance Order by Archbishop Anil of Delhi 2014 01 31 140 H31 Letter to CBCI 2014 02 02 141 H32 Opinion Poll at Public Meeting of 23 February 2014 2014 02 23 149 H33 Notice of Intention to Appeal to Rome 2014 03 27 151 H34 Post-Indult position in Mumbai - Josantony Joseph 2014 153 The cover picture is based on a painting by Nizin Lopez (Oil on canvas) done in Miami Gardens, Florida, US in 2011 Syro Malabar faithful of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese Coordinating Group: C/o - K-5(Basement) Lajpat Nagar 3, New Delhi 110024, India Email: [email protected] 24 May 2014 His Holiness Pope Francis, Vatican City ITALY Sub: Petition to the Holy Father for intervention in India Laity Suffering due to Syro Malabar Eparchy in Delhi region Most Holy Father, We humbly seek your sacred and urgent intervention in preventing what we perceive to be a serious imminent danger to the unity of the Church in India and outside. Your Holiness has been universally lauded for your passionate appeal for unity to the world’s Catholics. We recall your public remarks during Church Unity Week 2013 on the theme “Is Christ divided?” Your exact words were, “The divisions among us Christians are a scandal. There is no other word: a scandal.” It is this scandal we seek to prevent. B. Some recent developments in the Catholic Church of India seem defiantly to fly in the face of Your Holiness’s appeal. We humbly submit that the Syro- Malabar (SM) church, one of the sui iuris churches in India, is deliberately, insensitively and irrevocably damaging the “unity” and “communion” of the Church in Delhi and, by extension, of the Church in India and outside. C. This is not the first but the latest in a series of similar nefarious attempts by the SM Church over the years to expand its authority. There have been serious problems in Bengaluru (earlier Bangalore), Chennai (earlier Madras) and Mumbai (earlier Bombay). In each case, as we will document in these pages, the SM Church, at first cunningly (Bangalore, Chennai) and then blatantly (Bombay) entered these cities on the pretext of providing pastoral services to migrants who were well assimilated into the local Church but whose ancestors happened to be from Kerala. In all cases, the laity objected to the wanton destruction of communities. The clergy objected too - from parish priests right up to archbishops (and future cardinals) and the Catholic Bishops Conference of India itself. Yet the SM Church was indulged, for reasons that have never been clear. Page 1 of 6 D. Finally, the laity of Bombay referred the matter to Rome. At the end of five whole years of unabated struggle by the laity, and an investigation by Rome, Your Holiness’ saintly predecessor John Paul II issued an IndultA1, which put an end to these unholy efforts. The universal feeling of relief then was summed up as: Roma locuta, causa finita. “Rome has spoken; the cause has come to an end.” That indeed is where it should have ended. E. But not for a defiant SM Church! Now, 20 years later, that Church, rejecting the past, is making strenuous efforts, this time in Delhi (and again in Chennai, Bangalore and other cities) to circumvent the letter and destroy the spirit of St John Paul’s Kalyan Indult. Your Holiness, it would be dangerous for the entire Church in India now to indulge the ambitions -territorial, financial and political - of this sui iuris Church, on the specious grounds of “autonomy” and “diversity”. F. We the signatories of this Petition are professionals and academics from diverse fieldsA2, actively involved in the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese (DCA), and making voluntary, professional and financial contributions at both archdiocesan and parish levels over several decades. We represent more than 6,000 lay people, first, second and third generation migrants in Delhi, the capital of India, about 3,000 kilometres north of the Indian state of Kerala, from where our ancestors had emigrated decades agoA5. Most of our ancestors followed the Syro Malabar Church, while others followed the Latin Church. G. But this is not essentially about numbers. Our situation is mirrored in North India; all the major cities and urban centres in the rest of India – Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and others; and in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries; in fact wherever migrants from Kerala live. These migrants have been settled, some over seven decades ago, with children and grand-children being born in these places and receiving all the sacraments from the local Catholic church, most, if not all, of the Latin rite. H. Canon 15§3 of the Code of Canons of Eastern Churches (CCEC) stipulates that “in accord with the knowledge, competence and position which they possess,” the faithful “have the right and even at times a duty to manifest to the pastors of the Church their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church.” It is in this spirit that we come to Your Holiness – we believe these developments hold potential for scandal and schism in the Church in India. Page 2 of 6 I. We come to you in humility after having exhausted all avenues of appeal within India.A3 We have appealed to the Archbishop of the (Latin) Archdiocese of Delhi and to the Eparch of the (Syro-Malabar) Eparchy of Faridabad. We have tried on more than one occasion but have not obtained a hearing from the Apostolic Nuncio in Delhi. We have brought the matter to the notice of the Bishops of India individually and through the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI)H31, which had earlier officially refutedH13 the claims of the SM Church, but have received no response. Several of our priests and Bishops (both Latin and SM) have privately empathised with us but, in spite of St John Paul’s Kalyan Indult, issued – and clarifiedA1 - over 20 years ago, we find ourselves facing the same crisis all over again, this time in Delhi, because of the SM Church’s intransigence. J. The urgency and immediacy of the matter arises from the issue on 1 November 2013 of a Joint Pastoral Letter (JPL)H22 by The Latin Archbishop of Delhi and the SM Eparch of Faridabad. The JPL declared that, retroactively from March 2012, “all the Syro-Malabar faithful [in] the Archdiocese of Delhi have automatically become part of the Eparchy” of Faridabad”; consequent to which “the faithful of the Syro-Malabar Church cease to be members of the parishes of the Archdiocese of Delhi” to which they belonged for periods ranging from birth to several decades. It also emphasised, in direct contravention of the principle of faith and the letter of the law, that “basically there is no choice”. In this case, quite unmindful of the “scandal” Your Holiness had pointed out, the JPL actually set out to create division, where for decades there had been unity. K. The event is an eerie echo of a similar announcementH15 in Mumbai on 13 August 1988, issued jointly by the Archbishop of Bombay and the Eparch of Kalyan.