Most Holy Father!
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Major Archiepiscopal Church considers this to be one of the happiest and proudest moments in her hitherto history, as the Holy Episcopal Synod of this Church, ever since the Synod came into existence, is able to be with the Vicar of Christ on Earth, the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church. On behalf of all our priests, religious and the Faithful, this Holy Episcopal Synod extends our fondest greetings and sentiments of filial affection and allegiance to Your Holiness.
At the very outset, in the name of the whole Syro-Malankara Catholic I raise my heart to God in deep felt gratitude for the most precious gift of Your Holiness to the Church and to the world, for your spiritual leadership to the Church and for your moral leadership to the world, which is extremely crucial both for the Church and for the world today.
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church remains ever grateful to Your Holiness for the most generous patronage and constant support extended to us in our attempt to safeguard and live our precious Apostolic tradition, to bear Christian witness through our commitment to the Gospel values, to grow in our service of ‘Diakonia’ to the world and to flourish in Catholic communion. As an apostolic Church, founded by St. Thomas the Apostle and fully living the Catholic communion under the most inspiring leadership of Your Holiness, we are privileged to experience all the ecclesial and spiritual goodness of a Major Archiepiscopal Church sui juiris. I take this opportunity to express our deepest indebtedness to the Holy See for vesting this ancient and apostolic ecclesial community with the status of a Major Archiepiscopal Church within the Catholic communion. We sincerely appreciate all the support that Your Holiness and the Holy See provide us in living faithfully this special ecclesial vocation that we have in the Church and in the world.
We are humbly aware of the various dimensions of our ecclesial identity that we are called to live and witness to. As an oriental Apostolic Church, we realize the specificity and centrality of our liturgical tradition in our ecclesial and social life. This tradition is the primary source of our spiritual life. Hence the importance of safeguarding it in its integrity and living it faithfully. As an Eastern Church fully living the Catholic communion, we are constantly reminded of our special call to bear witness to the values of our Eastern ecclesial tradition and to the beauty and goodness of our universal communion. This invites us to be in continuous and constructive dialogue with our Eastern Christian brothers and sisters who have not yet been privileged to experience the grace of this communion. Thus ecumenism is a one of our major ecclesial concerns. At this juncture, we would like to express our deep appreciation for the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus. This Apostolic Constitution clearly manifested the profundity of the ecclesial vision of Your Holiness and the sincerity with which Your Holiness strive for Church unity. This came as a reaffirmation of and encouragement to our own attempts at Church unity for the last eight decades.
The socio-religious background in which we are called to fulfill our ecclesial and Christian mission is also very important. We are constantly exposed to, challenged and enriched by a multi-religious, multi- cultural context. The ancient cultures and religions amidst which we live have many things to enrich our own faith and spirituality. So also, there are elements in these cultures and religions which need to be made whole with the healing touch of the Gospels and the values of our specific ecclesial tradition. Therefore presenting the beauty of the Gospel message to these our brothers and sisters with the experiential richness of our personal ecclesial tradition is an equally important concern for us. Hence we are impelled to be in constant dialogue with the various religions and cultures around us. This makes it necessary that our missionary possibilities are not limited by any geographical boundaries in India. The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, from its very inception has always been deeply conscious of its missionary vocation, thanks to the inspiring example given by Servant of God Archbishop Mar Ivanios in his commitment to the mission Ad Gentes. As the whole Syro-Malankara Catholic Church is preparing seriously these days in prayer, study and reflection for the first ever Assembly of the Church to be held in September, we have happily chosen the topic ‘The Missionary Malankara Catholic Church’ as the special theme of the Assembly.
The dynamic growth of our Church has brought us beyond the boundaries of the Indian subcontinent. Today our ecclesial presence is very vibrant in the continents of America, Europe, Africa and also in the Gulf countries. This poses to us new ecclesial and missionary challenges. In the diverse, over-secularized and fast-changing cultures and value-systems that we are surrounded by in these regions, we as a Church are called to bear witness to the perennial values of the Gospels and of our ecclesial tradition. We are called to instill in these cultures a fundamental God-orientedness, to uphold the sanctity of the family, etc., – values that are very specific to the culture that we have inherited.
As a believing community gathered and sustained by the love of Christ, we are deeply aware of our special mission to our brothers and sisters who are less privileged than we are, who are the sad victims of poverty, violence, solitude, discrimination, etc.. The challenge of Christian charity impels us to be positively sensitive to them and to do all that is within our resources to allow them to live in the dignity of the Children of God.
In this context, the Holy Episcopal Synod of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Major Archiepiscopal Church humbly request Your Holiness to take personal care in solving the issue of All India jurisdiction for the Oriental Catholic Churches in India. It would bring in a new atmosphere of proper Catholic communion in the entire nation and enhance the work of evangelization in the sub-continent. Our Holy Episcopal Synod also request Your Holiness to visit our mother country India. It will be greatly appreciated by all those who seek God in our country.
We are deeply grateful to Your Holiness for all the support and blessings that Your Holiness so generously grant us in order to fulfill our Apostolates. Let me conclude with the earnest prayer of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church that the Lord may continue to bless Your Holiness with good health and all His special graces so that Your Holiness may continue to exercise this most important mission for the good of the Church and of the people all over the world. May the ministry of Your Holiness continue to be a powerful means to ensure the world peace and unity and to strengthen the faith of the people. The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church humbly implores Your Holiness’ paternal blessings and valuable prayers. We thank Your Holiness sincerely for this gracious audience and we express our unfailing loyalty and fidelity to Your Holiness.
Humbly Yours in Our Lord,
+ Baselios Cleemis
Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara
Catholic Major Archiepiscopal Church
Vatican
25th March, 2011
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