Pope appoints Bishop Kalathiparambil to Verapoly Archdiocese

Pope Francis on Monday appointed an archbishop to the Latin Archdiocese of Verapoly in southern India’s Kerala state.  He appointed Bishop Joseph Kalathiparambil, the Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, as the new Archbishop of Verapoly.  The 64-year old bishop replaces Archbishop Francis Kallarakal who has retired.   Verapoly: The Dioceses of Cochin, Kannur, Kottapuram, Sultanpet and  Vijayapuram are suffragans of Calicut Metropolitan Archdiocese.

Born on Oct 6, 1952,  in Vaduthala, Kerala, Bishop Kalathiparambil was ordained  priest on March 13, 1978, and appointed Bishop of Calicut in April 2002 and consecrated the following month.  Pope Benedict XVI called him to the Vatican in Feb.  2011, to be the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.   But with the reform of Pope Francis of the central administration of the Catholic Church in the Vatican, the four Pontifical Councils for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, and Healthcare ‎Workers‎ will cease to exist individually on Jan. 1, 2017, and will be merged into a new single office for the promotion of integral human development.