Pope: Touching a nerve

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov. 22: Pope Benedict’s recent homily, saying St Thomas had landed in western India and Christianity spread from there to the south, assails one of the popular beliefs among Christians in Kerala about their direct baptismal lineage to the apostle.

Kerala’s Christians have been broadly divided into descendants of early Christians baptised by St Thomas, and the rest, who were drawn from marginalised sections and converted by St Francis Xavier in the 16th century.

The former are called Syrian Christians, a term which also refers to the liturgical rites akin to Syrian traditions, and underlines their upper-caste origins.

Unless Pope Benedict XVI clarifies his sermon, Christians, especially Syrian Catholics, have reasons to feel let down since what he said is an affront to their traditional beliefs.

“Let us remember that an ancient tradition claims that Thomas first evangelised Syria and Persia and then went on to western India, from where Christianity also reached southern India,” says the translation of his sermon posted on the Zenit web site.

The Syrian Catholic Church has taken note of the observation. Cardinal Varkey Mar Vithayathil, the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, dominant among the three Catholic churches, has urged the Vatican to shed more light on the part pertaining to St Thomas’s sojourn in India.

None of the Church pontiffs in Kerala or elsewhere in the country would argue on the basis of established historicity that St Thomas had converted the early Christians in Kerala. But it’s their firm belief of legacy, synonymous with their faith in Christ.

Various denominations of modern Saint Thomas Christians trace their unwritten tradition to the end of the 2nd century, and believe that St Thomas landed at Maliankara, off Moothakunnam village in Paravoor, near Kochi, in 52 AD.

Then, he founded “Ezharappallikal”, meaning seven-and-half churches, at Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkayal (Paravoor), Palayoor (Chattukulangara) and Thiruvithamkode — the half church.