Pope appoints new bishop to Chikmagalur Diocese

(Dec. 2, 2006) Pope Benedict on Saturday appointed a new bishop to the diocese of Chikmagalur in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Fr. Anthony Swamy Thomasappa will take over from Bishop John Baptist Sequeira who has stepped down on reaching the retirement age of 75. Fr. Thomasappa who is currently professor at St. Peter’s Pontifical Seminary of Bangalore belongs to Bangalore archdiocese. He was born in 1951 at Mariannapalaya, a suburb of Bangalore city, and studied at Mysore and Bangalore minor seminaries. In 1973 he entered Bangalore’s St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary where he completed his philosophy and theology. After his priestly ordination in 1984 he held several pastoral posts in Bangalore archdiocese. Since 1992 he has been professor at St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary, during which he also obtained a doctorate in theology from Rome’s Gregorian University. Chikmagalur diocese with a little over 37,000 Catholics was created in 1963 and is a suffragan of Bangalore.