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The Vatican hopes to have finally put an end to the 40-year-old language dispute over the language of services in the churches of Bengaluru -- voting in favour of Kannada. But in its communication, the Vatican also said that English, being the "universal language" and Bangalore a "cosmopolitan city", it should also be the language of liturgy in all parishes.
Services in other languages, like Tamil, should be held even though the 'prime time' should be given to Kannada, it added.
The final call is of the parish priest, said the letter from Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, The Apostolic Nuncio to India. "It is the duty of the Parish Pastoral Council under the leadership of the Parish Priest to study and make a profile of the parish community and make proposals to the Archbishop."
Churches in Bengaluru are also attended by a sizeable population of Tamil speaking Christians and differences have often cropped up over the use of language, especially during Christmas and Easter midnight mass.
In a bid to broker peace between Tamil and Kannada speaking Christians, various committees were set up to recommend a solution to the long standing dispute. The findings were to senior church officials in September 2014, following which it issued the directives through a circular.
The directives were shared with all the state parishes by Bengaluru's Archbishop Dr Bernard Moras.
The Vatican said the language of masses should be one that's understood by the majority. "The language of the Liturgy should be in the language of the vast majority of people present at worship for their better understanding, participation and assimilation," the letter from the Apostolic Nuncio said.
The principal language of the Archdiocese being Kannada, in all parishes, "the principal language is to be encouraged in Masses and liturgical services."