PREFACE
Working more than thirteen
years among nearly fourty
thousand migrant Catholics of
the Syro-Malabar Rite in the
Archdiocese of Delhi (There is
no official statistics. Fourty
thousand is the safest
calculation I can make), I
have come across at least
three kinds of Syro-Malabar
Catholics, distinguished by
the nature of their relation
to the mother Church:
- The majority of the Syro-Malabar
migrant Catholics in Delhi
desire to get their pastoral
needs met in their own rite,
and by their own priests.
Even while accepting the
reality that they are
entrusted to the pastoral
care of the Archbishop of
Delhi, they prefer to have
Syro- Malabar priests sent
by the Major Archbishop of
the Syro-Malabar
Archiepiscopal Church. This
is for the simple reason
that they believe that these
priests may understand them
better and hence guide them
better than other priests,
even better than the Syro-Malabar
priests incardinated in the
Archdiocese of Delhi or Syro-Malabar
members in Latin religious
congregations which do not
have a Syro-Malabar
province. I am also of the
same opinion, and in this,
with all respect to the
Archdiocesan Synod 2002,I
disagree with some of the
suggestions in the report of
the synod and in the
pastoral plan resulting from
the Synod. It is heartening
to see that the majority of
the Syro- Malabar migrants
in Delhi make much sacrifice
to attend the Syro-Malabar
Liturgy on Sundays. The only
Syro-Malabar mass in most of
the parishes in Delhi are
after 10 .a.m. It is not
always easy to make it every
Sunday. But most of them are
very particular to live
their faith in their own
rite and traditions. This is
exactly what the Church
teachings recommend.
- A smaller number of the
migrant Syro-Malabar
Catholics think that they
are “alright with all the
rites ”.Most of these people
usually attend the English
Mass n the Latin rite. They
are not against the Syro-Malabar
pastoral care. But
considerations of
convenience force them to
discard the practice of
their rite. On special
occasions like the feast of
ST. Thomas, Holy week
services, Christmas, Syro-Malabar
convention, Syro-Malabar
religious and cultural
festival many of they fell
emotionally attached to
their rite. They also make
contributions to meet the
expenses of such programmes.
- Those who through long
practice of the Latin rite
have almost forgotten their
mother Church. But they feel
that there is no need of
Syro-Malabar pastoral care
in Delhi. Some of them also
object in the parish council
to giving chances for Syro-
Malabar Mass on all Sundays,
Holy week and other special
occasions in their parishes.
Most of the Orientals living
in Delhi are not aware of
the teachings of the Church
regarding the equal dignity
of all rites and the need
that every Catholic should
practice his or her own
rite. The documents of the
Church on this matter insist
that the Orientals, even if
they have been practicing
the Latin rite for a long
time. Come back to the
practice of their own rite.
Vatican Decree on Catholic
Eastern Churches exhorts:
“All the members of the
Eastern Churches should be
firmly convinced that they
can and ought always. 3 4
preserve their own
legitimate liturgical rites
and ways of life, and that
changes are to be introduced
only to forward their own
organic development. They
themselves are to carry out,
all these prescriptions with
the greatest fidelity. They
are to aim always at a more
perfect knowledge and
practice of their rites and
if they have fallen away due
to circumstances of times or
persons, they are to strive
to return to their ancestral
traditions ”
I have often felt the need
for some literature to help
the migrant Syro-Malabar
Catholics to understand
their own spiritual,
ecclesial and cultural
heritage. They have to know
that they belong to an
apostolic Church which
always kept up its identity,
did not compromise her stand
in doctrines even when the
Persian Church whose bishops
ruled over this Church
adopted Nestorian heresy,
and did not break communion
with the apostolic see even
when they were provoked by
foreign missionaries who
ruled over them to give up
communion with Rome in order
to adhere to the Chaldeans.
The history of St. Thomas
Christians of India is a
very interesting one. It is
a Church which never got
chances to exercise fully
her talents. But it is
consoling to see that after
the establishment of their
own hierarchy with
indigenous bishops, this
Church is emerging slowly.
The head of this Church had
a glorious title,
Metropolitan of All India.
This title was suppressed in
1600 and together with that
the right to evangelize and
to take care of her faithful
outside the proper
territory. Slowly things are
changing. The Syro-Malabar
church is on her way to
becoming a full fledged
particular Church I dedicate
this brief history of the
Syro-Malabar Church to the
migrant Catholics of the
Syro-Malabar rite.
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