Dear Knanaya Community Members,
The new game of clarification of membership in Knanaya Missions and Churches in North America is turning into a cruel game. The Knanaya membership is not a very confusing or new issue for the Syro Malabar Diocese. So why did the Syro Malabar and the Knanaya Region authorities had to issue so many announcements and clarifications which were then followed by so many discussions and interpretations of the words used to clarify the membership.? The only reasonable conclusion is that the membership issue is something that our Priests and Bishops lost to the powerful Syros a long time ago and we are mere sacrificial lambs. That is, if we allow ourselves to be sacrificial lambs.
We all know that this community was forced to purchase several Churches in North America under Syro Diocese with misleading facts and false hope that the community’s endogamous membership will remain intact. Within the past year an Arch Bishop and a Bishop provides explanation, reasoning, announcements clarifying the membership. Then our VG has to further clarify the same clarification! Anyone with common sense could see that there is foul play. KCCNA had laid it out very clearly for Mar Angadiath what Mar Moolakattu had stated and simply asked for a confirmation. One might wonder, what Mar Angadiath and our VG found troubling in the request from KCCNA that they could not respond with a simple YES or NO. Looks like it is a continuation of the trick ploy to make the Pavam Faithful spend money to buy churches for Syro and pay off the rest of the loans.
This community is very familiar with a huge list of broken promises and misleading information in the past from Syro. However, that is not what has led to the recent frustration and division within our community. It is because of the distrust and false promises from some of our own Knanaya Mission authorities. Since the establishment of the Syro Diocese in North America, it is the hard line approach by some of our clergy along with their secret, behind the scene acceptance of non-Knanaya membership in Knanaya Churches that led to this bad situation for the community and division. If our clergy are indeed in favor of endogamous membership in Knanaya churches, has anyone seen their frustration or reaction? If they are indeed for our unity, why do we never hear our clergy taking a step back from their “my way or the highway” stand to unite us? On the contrary, why is it that any Priest who stands with and for the unity of the community, especially the Knanaya Community associations, find themselves shipped back to Kerala?
The most disturbing fact and eye opener for many of the community members is the lack of passion and spirit in some of the Priests for the community’s unity and identity. We don’t see the willingness to sacrifice and the backbone to stand up for the community the same way once Mar Makil, Mar Choolaparambil and Mar Tharayil did? Somewhere along the way, there was a transformation for some of the priests from a Knanaya community’s Priest to a Priest employed by Syro. There was a transformation from protecting the identity of the Knanaya Community to establishing the Power and control of the Syro Diocese, sometimes, even at the expense of the spirituality and faith among our first and second generation youth. It seems like some priests had a transformation from a preacher to a fund collector, from praying with the faithful to threatening and denying sacraments and Holy Mass. This transformation is what need clarification and understanding, not the membership in Knanaya Community’s Churches which has a long standing history of several centuries. The membership structure when changed is not Knanaya anymore.
Since the formation of Kottayam Diocese 100 years ago, a generation of people grew up blindly believing that Knanaya Community means members under Kottayam Diocese or Knanaya Churches. They believed that our Bishops and Priests are sworn to protect this endogamous community and they will stand up for the community with all their might. But, with the declaration of the so called Moolakatu formula in Knanaya Churches outside Kottayam, one area of confusion has been removed. That our Bishops and Priests has announced to us repeatedly that they are powerless in carrying the community forward as the previous generation of Bishops and Priests were able to. Their hands are not only tied through the Syro Hierarchy, their hearts seem to lack passion and desire and their mind seems to lack the will power to face adversities for the community. The membership in Knanaya Churches outside Kottayam Diocese is not endogamous and it seems that our Bishops and some Priests find that acceptable – this is what most of us find most hurtful and hard to believe.
The current developments are not only an eye opener but it challenges the rest of the community members (non clergy) spread around the world to step up to carry the community forward. We might be living in different states or countries with different rules and laws, under different churches and different Rites and Bishops. Our children will grow up in different cultures and speak different languages yet we are united in our unique heritage, traditions and ancestry. This community is our responsibility to carry on and maintain for our sake and the generations after us. Just like our ancestors, we need to show the willingness to sacrifice and the courage to stand up for our right and dignity. The clarification that Syro Diocese should know is that Knanaya community is Of, By and For its endogamous members only and it does not dependent on the approval of a Bishop or the clarification of clarifications. It is for us to decide to financially support or refuse to support the non-endogamous missions and churches that as we all know is a “Slow Poison” for the Knanaya community. Through strengthening our associations and uniting under its banner along with the community loving Priests we should step up to shape and establish our community in our new adopted homeland where ever we live. The time to look to Kottayam Diocese, VG and Syro Diocese is behind us - This is the only clarification we have.
Reny Meckattil
New York
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