The Pandari Schism – An Evaluation

In November 1796, the Christians of Malabar sent four representatives (Antony, Joseph (Details are not known), Paul Pandari and Joseph Pandari) with the letter of their king Rama Rajah and of their clergy and the people to the Chaldean patriarch of Mosul, Joseph IV. The letter contained their grievances against the Carmelites and their request for a native bishop. Patriarch Joseph IV was dead already in 1791 and Mar John Hormez was the administrator of the Patriarchate. Having received the delegation from Malabar, Mar John wrote to Propaganda Fide on November 25, 1796. In his letter he showed no doubt regarding his right of jurisdiction over the Malabar Christians. Later he wrote a second time, without having obtained any answer from Rome, Mar John Hormez, after 16 months, decided to ordain Paul Pandari, one of the four from the deputation. Thus Mar Paul Pandari was consecrated bishop by Archbishop John. He was not ordained for Malabar but as a titular bishop for the monastery of St. Behnan, near Mosul. Here we don’t see any irregular activity from the part of Pandari.
Later the Congregation stated that Mar John had no authority to consecrate a bishop for a nation which neither belonged to him nor was of his rite and was asked to call back Pandari or suspend him from the ministry and from episcopal functions as long as he was not rectified by the Holy See. The Congregation wrote also to Msgr. Aloysius Mary, the apostolic vicar of Malabar that he might bring Pandari back to the obedience of the Holy See. Mar Hormez replied immediately explaining the circumstances in which he consecrated Pandari. On January 20, 1800 he wrote again to the Congregation two letters expressing sorrow rather than astonishment. Mar Hormez justified himself, saying that he thought it opportune to send a bishop to Malabar in the person of Pandari, but not with jurisdiction, just to help them in their despair, other wise they would have become heretics or idolaters. He held the view that the Congregation could not find fault with him because he consecrated Pandari only after waiting for a reply from Rome for one year and four months. He concluded that the Congregation did not want to answer nor to solve the problem. Finally respecting the order given to him, Mar Hormez agreed to call back Pandari.
Mar Paul Pandari, titled Mar Abraham, reached Malabar in March 1798 and was, with the two Chaldean priests, welcomed by the people. Msgr. Aloysius Mary went to the ecclesiastical administrator Thomas Paremmakkal and inquired about Pandari. They endeavoured to accept Pandari as a simple priest. At this time the Syrian Christians of the Archdiocese of Kodungalloor had no bishop to confer the sacraments of confirmation and ordination either in their diocese or in Kochi. So they turned to their own bishop who just came from Baghdad. The events took another turn when Thomas Paremmakkal died on March 19, 1799. Priests and two representatives from each parish met together [yogam] to decide on the future. They decided to elect one among the twelve priests [The yogam of February 2, 1784 decided that the twelve priests selected from among the Suriani priests should work for the spiritual good of the faithful and should live in those places designed by their ecclesiastical head; if any one of these dies, then the rest should select the twelfth one. Accordingly, after the death of the gubernador, the twelve automatically took up the responsibility to elect one vicar general, and that in the person of Kattakayam Abraham Malpan. Documents differ regarding the how of the election. Bernard Thoma (Mar Thoma Christians, 231-232) basing on the local manuscripts wrote: Paul Pandari, with the advice of the 12 priests, elected one among them as the vicar general. The Apostolic vicar of Malabar, Msgr. Aloysius Mary wrote to the Congregation that convinced of the inability and insufficiency of Mar Pandari to govern the churches, those who met at Changanassery forced him to declare as the governor one of their important teachers called Abraham Malpan. At any rate, the rule of the archdiocese came into the hands of the illegitimate vicar general Abraham Malpan. Illegitimate because, the community had no right whatsoever to elect their vicar general.
On April 13, 1799 the representatives of the churches met in a church at Changanasery and recognized Mar Pandari as their bishop. They also presented some of their clerics to be ordained priest by him and he did so. Mar Paul Pandari, although an illegitimate bishop, could exercise the episcopal functions as he was supported by the new vicar general. Only a few Syrian Catholic churches declared formal obedience to the new vicar general and to Mar Paul Pandari, and slowly the number of churches which declared obedience increased, which came up to 29.
An interesting event that happened at this time was the temporary reunion of Mar Dionysius I and his followers with the Catholic Church. We do not know whether the initiative was from the illegitimate bishop Mar Paul Pandari or from the unauthorized vicar general Kattakkayathil Abraham Malpan or from mar Dionysius himself. With the intention of reunion the representatives of the Jacobites headed by Mar Dionysius and those of the Catholics, headed by Mar Pandari met in the Holy Cross Church at Alappuzha and signed an agreement on May 20, 1799. However this reunion was not a legitimate one since there was no legitimate Church authority behind it. After the formal reunion at Thathampally the pseudo vicar general with another Malpan came to the Apostolic vicar of Malabar Aloysius Mary, to inform him of the happenings and asked him to inform the Holy See. The apostolic vicar did not give ear to their request.
The Archbishop of Goa sent to Malabar Fr. Aloysius of St. Joseph de Remibar, a Franciscan, as gubernador of Kochi. He instructed the Syrians not to communicate with the schismatics adhering to the intruder bishop Pandari and the illegitimate vicar general Kattakayam. Rebimar, through the apostolic vicar of Malabar, Sankoorikal Geevarghese [He had his studies in Propaganda] was appointed as the administrator of Kodungalloor. The appointment of a new vicar general left the pseudo vicar general no chance to remain in his office. This effected in Mar Pandari’s loosing his influence among the people. Mathu Tharakan fell into disgrace with the Thiruvithamkoor government. Thus one after another the supporters of Mar Dionysius lost their influential stands. Mar Dionysius could then understand that what he had accomplished at Thathampally had no meaning at all. He could not find any Latin authorities well-disposed to promote his cause. Keenly aware of his uncertain status and futile position, in December 1799 he reverted to Jacobite faith, after six months of Catholic life.

Here we see that Paul Pandari was a dedicated person to the Syrian Church, but his Episcopal ordination was illegal and Rome did not approve it. With the hope of getting it approved Pandari did good works among the Syrians. But at last everything turned around. Even the Latin hierarchy was also not ready to accept him as a bishop; if they accepted him as a bishop then the history could have changed.