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Church groups spar over mass
20 Sep 2007, 0538 hrs IST,Ipsita
Chakravarty,TNN
NEW DELHI: Bitterness between two
warring factions of the Roman Catholic Church in Delhi seems to have disrupted
the Christian
spirit of brotherhood and harmony.
The Latin
Rite and the Syro Malabar(SM) Rite are two of the 23 Rites that form the Roman
Catholic Church. The two have co-existed in the city for years, but things
turned
ugly on August 5, when members of St
Augustines SM parish gathered for Mass at St
Michaels Latin Church.
"On
that day, people from the Latin parish started provoking us. They said we had
no right to be there and that they were the only legitimate worshippers in that
church. A heated argument followed and some of us were pushed and hit. It
seemed to be a pre-planned job as the police had been stationed there from 6
am," said Sunil John, an SM follower.
A
"minority within a minority", the SM Rite, originating in Kerala,
follows a hybrid, indigenous form of Christianity, holding its Masses in
Malayali. The 1 lakh followers of the Rite in Delhi are under the
administration of the
Latin Archdiocese, with the Archbishop of Delhi responsible for their spiritual
needs.
While the
amount of "rent" to be paid by the SM parish for holding Mass at the
Latin Church of St Michaels is part of the problem, there is more to it. The
23 SM parishes currently existing in Delhi
are slated to form the core of a new, independent SM diocese, which is awaiting
sanction from the Pope.
Viewed as a
prelude to the formation of the new diocese, the formation of the new St
Augustines SM parish
seems to have ruffled feathers within the Latin Rite. "The SM parish of St
Augustines, Karol
Bagh, which was established on July 29, 2007, is a personal parish," said
Reverend Father Jose Edassery, a representative of the SM Rite.
This means
that, although the parish does not have property of its own, a separate priest
is appointed to look after the needs of members of that community and to hold
an independent Mass. St Augustines parish and St Michaels Latin parish share
the church as per the Archbishops instructions.A Malayali Mass is held there
every Sunday.
The
displaced St Augustines
parishioners have not been able to hold Mass for weeks now. In a statement
issued on August 18, Archbishop of Delhi Concessavo said that, given the
"tense situation," the Malayali SM Rite Mass would not continue at St
Michaels Church but efforts would be made to find an alternative venue.Members
of the SM Rite held a protest dharna outside Goldakhana Cathedral
Church on August 26.
The priest
of St Michaels parish, Father Albert Pintosaid the problem had been solved and
the Archbishop had taken the necessary steps to rectify the situation
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