Syro-Malabar Church welcomes coordinator for Australia

(August 9, 2010) The Syro-Malabar-rite Catholic Church based in southern India’s Kerala state has welcomed the appointment of a coordinator for its members in Australia saying it was long overdue. “It was a longstanding demand of the Church to have a representative there. We welcome it and are grateful to the Australian bishops,” said Father Paul Thelakat, spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Church. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference appointed Father Francis Kolencherry as the national coordinator of the Syro-Malabar rite Catholics in the country. “The appointment will certainly help the Church cater to the spiritual needs of its members in Australia,” Father Thelakat said adding that migration of members to Australia has increased in recent years. Archbishop Philip Wilson, president of the Australian bishops’ conference, made the appointment following “a request from the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Rite.” Thousands of Syro-Malabar-rite members have migrated to different parts of India and major cities around the world. Its first overseas diocese was in Chicago in 2001. The Catholic Bishops’ conference of India, CBCI, is the apex body of the Catholic Church of India which is made up of three individual rites: the Latin, which has the largest membership, and two eastern-rites - the Syro-Malabar and the Syro-Malankara. Of the country’s 160 dioceses 128 belong to the Latin, 26 belong to the Syro-Malabar and 6 to the Syro-Malankara. An estimated 11,000 Syro-Malabar Catholics are living in Australia.