(The Pillar. Luke Coppen).
Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil met with Pope Francis Monday for the first time since his election as head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in January.
The meeting was a chance for both men to take stock of developments in the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome after the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
In an almost 1,500-word address to Thattil, his brother bishops, priests, and Syro-Malabar laity, the pope tackled the most sensitive issue in the Eastern Church: the decades-long dispute over its Eucharistic liturgy.
He also made a surprise announcement concerning the ever-growing number of Syro-Malabar Catholics living outside of the Church’s homeland of India.