Kochi: The Syro-Malabar Synod has elected Bishop Antony Kariyil of Mandya as its news secretary.

The Carmelite of Mary Immaculate prelate replaces Bishop Bosco Puthur of Melbourne, who has stepped down after completing five years as the secretary of the larger of the two Catholic Oriental Churches in India.

Bishop Kariyil will assume charge in January 2017.

Bishop Kariyil was appointed the second prelate of Mandya Syro-Malabar eparchy on September 26, 2015, to fill the vacancy created by the promotion of Bishop George Njaralakatt as the archbishop of Tellicherry.

Fr Kariyil was serving as the director of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology (RSET) when he was made a bishop. Mandya diocese includes Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Bishop Kariyil is an eminent scholar and academician. He was the professor and later principal of Christ College Bangalore from 1975 to 1997. He was also the principal Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, from 1997 to 2002.

He was the superior general of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate and president of the Conference of Religious India, the national association of religious major superiors in the country.

He has also served as the member of various academic bodies, including the Academic Council of the Bangalore University; Board of Studies in Sociology of Bangalore University and Calicut University; Board of Studies in Social Work of Calicut University; Senate of the Cochin University of Science & Technology; and Syndicate of the M.G. University.

He has several publications to his credit, including two books ‘Church and Society in Kerala: A Sociological Study’ and ‘Thiruvayassu’.

He also served as the provincial of the CMI Sacred Heart Province and Manager of Rajagiri Educational Institutions from 2008 to 2011.

The prelate’s hard work helped establish RSET. He has guided, supported and shouldered a crucial role in its growth until he was elected the superior general in 2008, a post he held for six years.

Bishop Kariyil had served as a lecturer at Sacred Heart College, Thevara and chaplain of Bengaluru’s Catholic community.

Bishop Kariyil was born on March 26, 1950, in Chalil, Cherthala, a parish of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam- Angamaly. He made his first profession in the CMI Congregation on May 16,1967, and was ordained a priest on December 27, 1977.