Malankara Cathedral Declared Basilica  11.11.2008

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (ICNS): Senior Vatican official Cardinal Leonardo Sandri declared Malankara Church’s St. Mary’s Cathedral in Kerala a Basilica. Cardinal Sandri, prefect of the Vatican congregation for Oriental Churches, read out the papal declaration on Tuesday inside St. Mary’s, the cathedral of Syro Malankara Rite in state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The bishops of all six diocese of the Church were present at the function. The Church is a faction came to the Catholic fold in 1930. The declaration was made during a reception accorded to the cardinal by the Syro Malankara Church.

With the declaration, Kerala now can be proud to house four Basilicas. The other three Basilicas are at Ernakulam and Thrissur of Syro Malabar Church and Vallarpadam of Latin Church. This is the first Basilica declared for the Syro Malankara Catholic Church.

"This is a day of blessing not only to the Syro Malankara Church in Kerala, but for the capital city of this beautiful land, Cardinal Sandri said.

The title Basilica is honorary in nature and originally means a grand building in a Roman town. After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term was extended to mean important church buildings, and pope granted them ceremonial rites. The title now has both architectural and the ecclesiastical significance.

In the order of ranking Papal Basilicas outrank all other churches all over the world. A Cathedral, the seat of a bishop or archbishop, stands ahead of all other churches in a diocese, even if they have the title of basilica. St. Mary’s is now both Cathedral and Basilica.

St. Mary’s is the top ranking Church in the Malankara Church now as it is the seat of its Major Archbishop and Catholicose. The primacy of the Cathedral depends on the primacy of the prelate, whose seat it holds. The word cathedral comes from cathedra, which simply means seat or chair.

[Kindly Note:: Under previously published article,  the photo was wrongly posted. It is corrected here.]