KOCHI: In an act of open defiance, laity representatives of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese have confronted Mar Andrews Thazhath, new apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, with the recent developments including circumstances in which Mar Antony Kariyil was “forced” to resign. A video of the laity confronting Mar Thazhath, who was appointed by the Vatican, in an abusive and disrespectful manner had gone viral on social media.
The incident occurred on Thursday when the laity representatives had arrived at Ernakulam Bishops’ House to meet Mar Thazhath and hand over the mass petition, that was signed last Sunday during ‘Vishwasa Maha Sangamam’, seeking to retain the existing form of the Holy Mass in the archdiocese.
Around 100 laity members had entered the conference room of the Bishops’ House where Mar Thazhath had agreed to meet them. Though the meeting began with the laity raising their concerns regarding the implementation of the uniform Holy Mass, it became very abusive later on.
“Who taught you to threaten?… Who gave you the right to visit Mar Kariyil and ask him to withdraw the letter he had written from his heart?... You are a bishop not a goon!” can be heard in the video.
In the video, someone was also heard saying “we would break your (Thazhath’s) legs”.
“It was not right. The emotions expressed by everyone were not the same. We had arrived at Bishops’ House in the morning to meet Mar Thazhath. We had to wait for hours to meet him. When he met us, the first thing he told us was that he would give us five minutes to listen to our concerns. He was not welcoming at all,” said Riju Kanjoorkaran, spokesperson of Almaya Munnettam, a body of the laity of the archdiocese.
“We informed him about our concerns and he did not respond to any of them. He had an arrogant attitude from the beginning. Some of us lost patience and expressed it in a unruly manner. We had spoken to them regarding their behaviour as well,” said Riju. Meanwhile, Syro-Malabar Church officials said that since it is an internal matter of the archdiocese, the Church had not so far involved itself in it.