Pope approves new bishops for Thuckalay, Palai in India

(August 24, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday approved two bishops elected by the eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church for the Dioceses of Thuckalay and Palai in southern India. The synod of the bishops of Syro-Malabar Church, meeting at Mount Saint Thomas in Kerala, elected Salesian priest Fr. George Rajendran Kuttinadar, Rector of St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School in Shillong, Meghalaya, as Bishop of Thuckalay, and Fr. Jacob Muricken has been appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Palai. Fr. Muricken is coordinator of pastoral programme of Palai. Unlike direct appointments made by the Pope in the Latin-rite Church, the synods of eastern-rite Catholic Churches elect their own bishops who are then forwarded to the Pope for approval. The seat of the Syro-Malabar Diocese of Thuckalay has been vacant since the election on May 24, 2011, of Cardinal George Alencherry as Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly, or the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church based in Kerala. Pope Benedict XVI approved his election the following day and on 18 Feb. 2012, made him a Cardinal. India’s Catholic Church comprises three rites - the Latin, the largest and Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches. The bishops of all the three rites form the apex body of the Catholic Church in India – the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, CBCI.