The Syro-Malabar Church has announced the appointment of three new bishops. While two of them are auxiliary bishops for the archdioceses of Thrissur and Thalassery, one will head the Major Archiepiscopal Curia.Fr Tony Neelankavil has been appointed the auxiliary bishop of the Thrissur archdiocese, while Fr Joseph Pamplany is the auxiliary bishop of Thalassery. Fr Sebastian Vaniyapurakkal has been elected the curia bishop. The election of the new bishops was held at the Synod of the Church that concluded at Mount St Thomas, Kakkanad, the headquarters of the Church, on Friday.
The announcement of the election was read out at Vatican and the Church headquarters simultaneously. Syro-Malabar church head Mar George Cardinal Alencherry handed over the appointment orders to bishop-elects. The Cardinal, Mar Andrews Thazhath, Mar George Njaralakkatt and Mar Mathew Arakkal presented the bishop-elects with the insignia of episcopacy. Fr Tony Neelankavil is the eldest of the five children of N A Joseph and T J Mary. He belongs to Lourdes Metropolitan Cathedral Church parish. He was ordained a priest on December 27, 1993, by Archbishop Mar Joseph Kundukulam.
Fr Joseph Pamplany is the fifth among the seven children of Joseph and Mary Pamplany. He belongs to St Sebastian’s Church, Charal. The bishop-elect was ordained a priest on December 30, 1997, by Archbishop George Valiamattam.
A native of Nirmalagiri Parish in Kanjirappally diocese, Fr Sebastian Vaniyapurackal was elected Curia Bishop while serving as Syro-Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Vice-Chancellor at the Church headquarters. He is the eighth child of Vaniyapurackal V M Thomas and the late Eliamma. Fr Sebastian, was ordained a priest on December 30, 1992, by Bishop Mathew Vattakuzhy.
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