Pontifical delegate reaches Kochi

Kochi: Pope-appointed pontifical delegate for the archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly, archbishop Cyril Vasil S J, a Slovakian bishop, arrived in Kochi on Friday morning.“Archbishop Cyril Vasil arrived today and has taken over the responsibilities entrusted to him,” Syro-Malabar Church said in a social media post on Friday. He was welcomed by a group of Church officials, including Bishop Sebastain Vaniyapurackal, the curia bishop, Fr Abraham Kavilpurayidathil, Fr Varghese Pottackal and Fr Antony Perumayan.The archbishop has come as an official representative of the Vatican, said church sources. The delegate is likely to stay at a neutral location and sources said that he would remain in Kerala at least for a few weeks.The pontifical delegate is the Bishop of the eparchy of Košice in the Slovak Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia and is former secretary of the dicastery for the Eastern Churches. He was accompanied by Fr Sunny Kokkaravalayil S J, a professor of Canon law at Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.The delegate would study the current situation and propose ways to end the crisis in the archdiocese in connection with the implementation of the synodal decision on the uniform mode of celebration of the Holy Mass. Even while the pontifical delegate functions in the archeparchy as a special envoy of the Pope, archbishop Andrews Thazhath will continue to administer the archeparchy in his capacity as the apostolic administrator.