Catholic and Orthodox religious orders plan dialogue during jubilee

The indigenous religious order of Syro Malankarahopes its 75th anniversary of founding will begin the healing of the order, split more than 50 years ago into an Orthodox Syrian Church faction and a Syro-Malankara Catholic faction.

“As a jubilee memorial we plan to start a dialogue with our counterparts in the other Church,” Father Jerome Peedikaparampil, superior general of the Catholic faction of the Order of the Imitation of Christ told UCA News.

The jubilee year “will help us resume broken ties,” he said.

Plans will be finalized in September, Father Peedikaparampil added, when special programs for individual houses and members will be developed.

Popularly known as the Bethany Fathers, the Order of the Imitation of Christ was founded in the Orthodox Syrian Church of Malabar in 1919 by Father P.T. Geevargheese Panikkaruveetil with the aim of working for spiritual and liturgical renewal of the Orthodox Church.

The members wear saffron robes and try to preserve age-old Indian religious and ascetical traditions.

The order split in 1930 when Archbishop Mar Ivanios led a group of the Orthodox Church into communion with the Holy See. Ever since, the Catholic faction has also dedicated to the work of reunion of the separated brethren.

The Catholic faction was elevated to pontifical status in 1966.

The Bethany Orthodox faction now has about 12 priests while the Catholic faction has 102 priests working in 30 parishes, 80 seminarians and 32 institutions engaged in various apostolates.

One plan for the jubilee is to build 75 houses for poor families, according to Father Peedikaparampil.

Source: UCA News