Kerala priest resigns from parish over liturgy requirement

Fr Augustine Vattoly claimed the Syro-Malabar Church’s leadership was ‘obsessed’ with ritual uniformity while ‘ignoring’ the cries of the poor.

A priest of the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly resigned from parish ministry to avoid celebrating the “uniform rite” of the liturgy and to protest against the Syro-Malabar Church’s “non-democratic” governance.

Fr Augustine Vattoly, parish priest of St Augustine Church in Kadamakudy in southern Kerala’s Ernakulam district, said his decision to resign on 14 September was triggered by a parishioner’s request for a Mass in uniform mode and to vent his frustration at what he called the “rotting of the Church”.

Just two months ago, a protracted liturgy dispute over the celebration of the Holy Qurbana, the Eastern-rite Mass of the Syro-Malabars, was settled when the archeparchy allowed its priests to celebrate the liturgy versus populum, rather than partly ad orientem as mandated in the uniform mode approved by the Church’s synod.

It required, however, that each of Ernakulam-Angamaly’s 400 priests celebrate one Mass in the uniform mode on Sundays and feast days in all parishes of the diocese, the largest in the Syro-Malabar Church and its primatial see.

“I will not celebrate Synod-approved Qurbana,” Fr Vattoly, 54, told The Tablet. “Therefore, to avoid any division in the parish on the issue, I resigned from parish ministries per se, not from priesthood.”

A noted advocate on social issues and no stranger to public controversy, he claimed the Church is “more obsessed” with ritual uniformity while “ignoring” the cries of the poor. In his resignation letter addressed to Archbishop Joseph Pamplany, the archiepiscopal vicar of the archeparchy, Vattoly said that “too much power is concentrated in the hands of the men in mitres”.

“There is no democratic process, the laity have virtually no say. Their role is limited to pray, pay and obey. It goes against the grain of Christ’s teaching,” he said. “Where is synodality? The style of functioning of the church is a hindrance to Jesus’ ‘love thy neighbor’ philosophy.”

He accused bishops of authoritarianism, of maintaining a lack of transparency in church-run institutions, and of indifference to social realities. “Unbridled power is corrupting,” he said, demanding that their role should be made more transparent, democratic and accessible.

Fr Vattoly has joined many protests on social issues, some with the bishops’ support, such as his campaign against a Coca Cola plant in Kerala which was drawing surplus water while wells in the village ran dry. He has also participated in protests against the bishops, such as the “land scam” protests against Cardinal George Allencherry and nuns’ demonstrations against Franco Mullakkal, the former Bishop of Jalandhar accused of raping a nun multiple times.

Fr Kuriakose Mundadan, presbyteral council secretary of the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, told The Tablet that in the past Vattoly had not been assigned any parish so that he could continue his campaigning work. He said Fr Vattoly will “continue” to be a priest of the archeparchy, but Vattoly said he would withdraw his resignation only when the authorities permit him to celebrate the liturgy versus populum without restrictions.

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