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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “the greatest fruit of Card. Varkey Vithayathil, Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabars, India, is communion, within the community, with other Indian Bishops and with the universal Church. But there are also the fruits of the growth of vocations and a renewed missionary spirit.” With these words Bishop Bosco Puthur, Bishop of the Roman Curia, and current Apostolic Administrator of the Syro-Malabar Church in India, recalls in an interview with Fides, the Archbishop who died yesterday, 1 April. “He was a man of prayer, simple person, a Pastor rich in mercy, who took care of his flock with love,” according to Bishop Puthur. “His greatest contribution to the Syro-Malabar Church was to patiently build communion, which is vital in the community, mainly because of his ability to listen. Today we are benefitting from the fruits of his work: dialogue in communion.”
Bishop Vithayathil was appointed Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabars in 1997, and raised to the dignity of Cardinal in 2001. The Indian Bishops also spoke of him in a message as a Pastor devoted to the poor and the marginalised.
Speaking to Fides from the Vatican for their Ad Limina visit, Bishop Bosco Puthur, who heads the delegation of 36 Indian Bishops of the Syro-Malabar rite in Southern India, provides an overview of the pastoral situation of the Church, after the wise guidance of the Cardinal: “Today, our Church is alive with rising vocations and a strong missionary spirit expressed throughout many countries around the world.” Bishop Bosco expressed his joy at the experience of the Ad Limina visit in which “the Holy See, listens to her children with care, advising them how to better carry out their pastoral ministry.”
The Syro-Malabar Church is an Apostolic Church of the Eastern rite that goes back, according to tradition, to the preaching of St Thomas the Apostle (which is why the Malabar Christians are also known as the “Christians of St Thomas”). Today it has about four million faithful, mainly in the state of Kerala (Southern India) and also some in the United States. In India there are communities (and Bishops' Conferences) from three rites: Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankar. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 2/4/2011)
