Pope acknowledges Bishop Alencherry as new head of Syro-Malabar Church

(May 27, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI has acknowledged Bishop George Alencherry of Thukalay as the new head of the India-based Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The synod of bishops of the eastern-rite Catholic Church based in Kerala state, which claims its origin to St. Thomas the Apostle, on Tuesday, elected Bishop Alencherry as its Major Archbishop. In the Catholic Church bishops of Eastern Churches elect their own heads and bishops which the Pope acknowledges. The installation of the new head as the third Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly is scheduled for Sunday at St. Marys Cathedral Basilica in Ernakulam. Born in 1945 in Kerala’s Kottayam district, Bishop Alencherry was ordained a priest in 1972 and became bishop of Thuckalay in 1997. He is currently the secretary of the Syro-Malabar Synod and also the chairman of the Church’s Commission for Catechesis. The Syro-Malabar Church along with the other Oriental rite Syro-Malankara Church and the Latin rite make up the Catholic Church in India. 66-year old Bishop Alencherry succeeds Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, who passed away on April 1. Bishop Alencherry, however, is the first elected head of Syro-Malabar Church. The election is part of the new administrative system put in place within the Syro-Malabar Church after Pope John Paul II made it a Major Archiepiscopal Church in 1992, appointing Cardinal Antony Padiyara as its first Major Archbishop. After him Cardinal Vithayathil was appointed Major Archbishop in 1999. In 2004 the Syro-Malabar Church was granted full administrative powers, including the power to elect bishops, like in other eastern-rite Churches of the Catholic communion.