Fr. Abraham Kackanatt new Bishop of Muvattupuzha of Syro-Malankara Church

(Jan. 18, 2008) A new bishop has been appointed to the Catholic Syro-Malankara rite diocese of Muvattupuzha in southern India’s Kerala state. Pope Benedict XVI on Friday acknowledged the election of Fr. Abraham Kackanatt as the new bishop of Muvattupuzha by the synod of the Syro-Malankara church. As a major archiepiscopal church, the Syro-Malankara Church is granted the highest level of self-government under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in the Catholic Church. One area of autonomy is the appointment of its own bishops by the synod, the apex body of the Eastern rite Catholic Church, to which the Pope gives his assent. Fr. Kackanatt succeeds Archbishop Thomas Koorilos Chakkalapadickal who was transferred to Tiruvalla as archbishop last March. Born on June 10, 1944, at Kalloopara, Kerala, Fr. Abraham Kackanatt, was ordained priest in 1970. The 67-year old priest holds a Master’s degree in sociology from Mysore university, a Licentiate in Scriptures from Rome’s Pontifical Bible Institute, a Doctorate in Biblical Theology from Rome’s Pontifical Urban University and a diploma in Biblical and Oriental Studies from Jerusalem’s Bible Institute. Fr. Kackanatt has held several posts in Tiruvalla archdiocese, among them director of social works, corporate manager of schools, professor at the Cana Research Institute for Family and Marriage and administrator of the Pushpagiri Group of Institutions and Secretary of the Pushpagiri Medical Society. An accomplished linguist, Fr. Kackanatt speaks Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit, English, Italian, German, French and Spanish besides his native Malayalam. He also knows Latin, Syrian, Hebrew and Greek.