Pope appoints new bishop in Vijayawada, India

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis on Monday appointed a new bishop to the Diocese of Vijayawada in southern India’s Andhra Pradesh state.  Fr. ‎Joseph Raja Rao Thelegathoti, the Bangalore Provincial Superior of the Montfort Missionaries (SMM), is the new bishop of Vijayawada.  The seat of the Vijaya wada Diocese has been vacant since 2012 after Pope Benedict transferred Bishop ‎Prakash Mallavarapu to the Archdiocese of Visakhapatnam.

Born on March 8, 1952, at Peddautapally, ‎ Fr. Thelegathoti entered the Minor Seminary of St. Ambrose at Nuzvid after obtaining a B.A. degree.   As a Montfort novice he studied philosophy at ‎St. Peter’s Papal Seminary di Bangalore, and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.  Later, he obtained a licentiate in Biblical Theology from Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore, India, and a doctorate in Spiritual Theology from Rome’s Pontifical  Gregorian University.  After taking his final vows as member of the Montfort Missionaries on Jan. 31, 1980, he was ordained a priest on June 7, 1980. After his ordination he held several posts, among them the rectorships of the Montfort minor seminary and the Montfort theologate in Bangalore, and in the province as well as in the general house in Rome.