Bangalore: Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, the first cardinal from the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, has been re-elected as the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
The CBCI is one of the largest Bishops’ Conferences in Asia, and is linked to the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
The 57-year-old cardinal is the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI elected him to the College of Cardinals in 2012. At the time of his selection, he was the youngest cardinal.
Archbishop of Trichur Andrews Thazhath and Archbishop of Goa Filipe Neri Ferrao were also re-elected as CBCI vice president I and vice president II.
Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Ranchi, was elected the secretary general. He replaces Archbishop Albert D’Souza of Agra, who has served as the CBCI secretary general for the past six years.
Bishop Lumen Monteiro was re-elected for a term of four years as chairman of Caritas India and Bishop Thomas Dabre was re-elected as the chairman of National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre for a second term of four years.
Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras-Mylapore was elected chairman of St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, replacing Archbishop Francis Kallarakal.
On the penultimate day of the CBCI plenary assembly, 178 bishops collected and collated various suggestions and recommendations that came up during the discussions in the last six days. They bishops came to Bangalore to address the main theme “The response of the Church in India to the present day challenges.”
The bishops also had discussions for preparing the final statement of the 32nd assembly, to be released on the concluding day of March 9.