Vatican City: Pope Francis on Friday appointed Indian Cardinal George Alencherry a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The cardinal, who is the head of the eastern-rite Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, is already a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for Oriental Churches and the International Council for Catechesis at the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.
The cardinal, the Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly, will turn 71 on April 19, reports the Vatican Radio.
He was elected the leader of 5 million strong Syro-Malabar Catholics on May 24, 2011. Pope Benedict XVI made him a cardinal on October 14, 2012.
The cardinal is based at Kochi, the commercial capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
He succeeded Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil as the Syro-Malabar leader.
He was made a cardinal on February 18, 2012.
George Alencherry was born as the sixth child of Philipose and Mary Alencherry in Thuruthy in Changanacherry archdiocese. He started primary schooling at St Mary’s School, Thuruthy, and secondary education at St Berchman’s High School, Changanacherry.
He joined the archdiocesan minor seminary at Parel in 1961. He topped BA Economic with second rank from St Berchman’s College. He then joined St Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary, Aluva where he completed his philosophical and theological studies.
He was ordained a priest on December 18, 1972, by Cardinal Mar Antony Padiyara, who was then the archbishop of Changanacherry. He continued his higher studies at the Pontifical Institute of Theology and Philosophy and obtained master’s degree in first rank.
He started his priestly career as assistant vicar at the Cathedral Church of Changanacherry and director of the Archdiocesan Faith Formation department.
He then served three years as secretary of the Commission for Catechism of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC). He was sent to Paris for higher studies. He pursued his studies at Sorbonne University and the Catholic Institute for his doctorate in biblical theology.
On returning to India in 1986, the young priest was appointed director of the Pastoral Oriental Centre at Palarivattom, Kochi, and deputy secretary of KCBC, a post he held until 1993. Simultaneously he taught at St Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor.
He was made the first bishop of Thuckalay in Tamil Nadu, which was carved out of the Archdiocese of Changanassery in 1996.
He participated as a cardinal-elector in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. During the conclave, he joined Coptic Catholic Patriarch-Emeritus Antonios Naguib, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, and Syro-Malankara Major Archbishop Baselios Cleemis to wear different vestments, proper to their respective churches. The others were all from the Latin rite.