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.