The four-year liturgy conflict was about ritual direction on its surface and about authority underneath: whether a synod can bind an archdiocese whose people and priests are near-unanimous against it, and whether a rite belongs to the bishops or to the community that has been praying it. The dispute drew in the Vatican, which sent a papal delegate, and both Francis and Leo XIV addressed the church directly. It also drew in Kerala politics, the courts and the press, and produced scenes — a cathedral locked, police at a Christmas Mass — that neither side wanted photographed. The 2025 compromise has held so far and no party has claimed the principle was settled.