ക്നാനായ സമുദായത്തിന്റെ കാര്യത്തില്‍ വത്തിക്കാനില്‍ നിന്നുള്ള ഒരു ഔദ്യോഗികരേഖ

ഒരു മാന്യവായനക്കാരന്‍ ക്നാനായ വിശേഷങ്ങളില്‍ പ്രസധീകരിക്കണമെന്നു താല്പര്യപ്പെട്ട് അയച്ചുതന്നെ രേഖയാണിത്. ഇതിന്റെ ആധികാരികതെയെക്കുറിച്ചു കൂടുതലൊന്നും അറിയില്ല. ഇത് ആധികാരികമാണെങ്കില്‍, ഇത്രയും നാള്‍ ഇത് ക്നാനയമക്കളില്‍ നിന്ന് മറച്ചുവച്ചത് എന്തുകൊണ്ടാണെന്ന് മനസ്സിലാകുന്നില്ല. ഇതിനെ വിശകലനം ചെയ്യാന്‍ പ്രാപ്തിയുള്ളവര്‍ ഇതിനെക്കുറിച്ച്‌ മറ്റു വായനക്കാരെ ബോധവല്‍ക്കരിക്കുമെന്ന പ്രതീക്ഷയോടെ...

Administrator

Congregatio

Pro Ecclesiis Orientalibus

Prot. N 85/2001.

Instructions

1.        This Congregation has been aware for some time of the delicate nature of the position of the Knanaya Community in the United States.  A serious dispute in the 1980’s prompted the late Archbishop of Chicago, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, to request directives from this congregation concerning the Special Ministry for the Knanaya Catholic Community in the Archdiocese.  With Rescript Prot. N. 124/83 of 30 January 1986, this Congregation made clear the position to be taken regarding the endogamous practice of those Knanaya faithful of the Eparchy of Kottayam who had emigrated to the greater Chicago area (Enclosure 1).  When Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry, the Bishop of Kottayam, requested a review of the policy embodied in the Rescript, this Congregation responded with letter Prot. N. 24/91 of 3 October 1997, upholding the previous decision of the Congregation and informed the present Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly, His Eminence Varkey Cardinal Vithaythil, of the decision (Enclosures 2.3).  As Your Excellency will note from these letters, this Congregation explained clearly that the practice of endogamy was not acceptable in the United States, or in any jurisdiction outside of the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church.  Furthermore, the letter clarified the fact that the Knanaya Catholic Mission was responsible to the local Latin Archbishop and the Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly and not the Bishop of Kottayam.

With the  erection of the Eparchy of St. Thomas of Chicago and your nomination of the first Bishop, the Holy See foresees the necessity to provide adequate and proper pastoral care to Syro-Malabar faithful of the Eparchy of Kottayam who now reside in the United States the care of these faithful is to be marked by great sensitivity and patience, based upon an appreciation of the cultural atmosphere from which they have arrived.  However, this pastoral care must also recognize the values and societal expectations present in the United States and even more fundamentally, the evangelical values requisite in all pastoral care.  Therefore, this Congregation foresees a pastoral care which is sensitive to the Knanaya expectation to be served by Knanaya priests, but does not make any allowance for endogamy to play a role in the defining the membership of faithful in any mission or parish established by the Eparchy.  The further establishment of missions and even parishes for the Knanaya faithful, as presently practiced in the United States, is understood to be beneficial.  However, the Holy See continues to follow the directives outlined in the Rescript Prot. N. 124/83 mentioned above.