Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal to Head Asian Bishops Communication Office

(November 20, 2010) Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal SVD, Bishop of Indore and Chairman, CBCI Commission for Social Communications, has been appointed Chairman of the FABC Office of Social Communications. He succeeds Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore who headed the office for the past seven years. 61-year old Bishop Chacko has a Masters degree in communications from U.K. He is also the chairman of the National Institute of Social Communications, Research and Training one of the six CBCI Institutes in India. The new chairman and member bishops assumed office during the 15th Annual meeting of the Bishops held at Camillian Pastoral Institute, Bangkok on November 18. The FABC Social Communication Centre coordinates and supports various communication ministries in the bishops’ conferences of Asia and organises workshops for the training of Asian bishops in social communications, called Biscom. It also constitues the apex body for the functioning of the Manila-based Radio Veritas Asia, a service which broadcasts in 15 Asian languages. The Office also has a department for media research based in the St.John University in Bangkok named the Asian Research Centre.