Pope Francis met on May 13 with Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil of the troubled Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. In his public remarks the Pope urged acceptance of the new liturgical rules that provoked a rebellion in the India-based Syro-Malabar community.
The Pontiff said that the ferocious liturgical disputes were the result of “a self-referentiality, which leads to listening to no other way of thinking but one’s own.” He said that priests and laity who resisted the new liturgical guidelines were “showing a lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament” when they argued about “the details of how to celebrate the Eucharist.”