Did Thomas the Apostle visit South India?

After Kerala's Syro-Malabar Church voices concern, Vatican corrects papal remark

Pope Benedict XVI, who became the target of global protest after his comments on Islam and Prophet Mohammed, faces dissent from among the flock for his rediscovery of history.

After the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala voiced its concerns over the papal remark doubting Thomas the Apostle’s visit to south India, Vatican has corrected the speech in its official website.

The Pope, in a general audience at St Peter’s Square on September 27, said: “Let us remember that an ancient tradition claims that Thomas first evangelised Syria and Persia then went on to Western India from where Christianity also reached Southern India.”

The new version on the website supplants ‘Christianity’ with ‘he’ (St Thomas), returning to the old theory of the apostle's visit to south India. The Syro-Malabar Church, which accounts for 4 million of the 24 million Christians in India, objected to the Pope’s casual remarks made in a series of catechesis on the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ.

The Church’s mouthpiece Sathyadeepam (Light of Truth), a fortnightly, ran an article on its November 19 issue criticising the Pope’s remarks.

The article titled ‘St Thomas the apostle of India or of Pakistan’ written by Jesuit priest George Nedungattu reads: “Pope Benedict may seem to distance himself from his predecessors, especially Pope John Paul II, who on several occasions has referred to St Thomas as the Apostle of India. According to Pope Benedict XVI, however, the area St Thomas evangelised was not south India, but what he called “western India,” corresponding roughly to Pakistan today.”

“Pope Benedict XVI has the reputation of being a theologian, but this is not the same as competence in Church history. His negative stand does not erode the merit of the Indian tradition about St Thomas as the Apostle of India.” The priest, who is working with Oriental Pontifical Institute in Rome, sites sources from early Popes to former Indian Presidents Rajendra Prasad and Shankar Dayal Sharma to prove his point. In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the Santhome Cathedral in Chennai, where St Thomas is believed to be buried in a crypt.

Syro-Malabar Church, one of the three Catholic Churches in Kerala, claims to have been formed by those directly baptised by the apostle, who landed in Kerala in AD 52 and was martyred in Tamil Nadu in AD 72. But Latin Catholic Church, established in the 15th century, has been less insistent on the claim.

“The Pope’s statement is contrary to the views expressed by earlier Popes and official view of the Church. Earlier Popes acknowledged St Thomas as Apostle of India in their statements and records,” Father Paul Thelakat, chief editor of the fortnightly, said. Though there was no official rebuke to the papal theory, believers did not try to hide their resentment. Syro-Malabar Archbishop Joseph Powathil, however, said that “The Pope has been misquoted.”