Sixty Years Too Late: Priests Fight for „Facing People”
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The Syro-Malabar, using the East Syriac Rite, are the second largest Oriental Catholic Church based in Kerala, India. Presently, they follow two different modes of celebrating Mass. In one, the priest faces the faithful, in the other he faces sometimes God and sometimes the faithful.
An August 16-24 virtual synod is expected to introduce the second as „uniform mode of celebrating Mass.” It has Francis' official support.
However, Father Kuriakose Mundadan, the archdiocese's presbyteral council secretary, believes that “the mind of Francis does not want to impose the uniform mode celebration in all dioceses” as this “will create conflict over unity” (MattersIndia.com, August 12). For Mundadan „our situation is not all ready for a 50-50 formula of celebrating the Mass.”
This conflict started in the 1970s when the bishops began fiddling around with the liturgy after Vatican II, causing a liturgical war with one group wanting to restore the liturgy to its original purity while others opting for „modern” changes.
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