By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, May 17, 2019: Pope Francis on May 17 appointed Father Shyamal Bose as the coadjutor bishop of Baruipur diocese in West Bengal state.
The announcement was made at 12 noon in Rome and at 3:30 pm, its corresponding time, in India, according to a press release from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.
The bishop-elect was Baruipur diocese’s financial administrator and chancellor at the time of his appointment.
He was born on March 24, 1961, in Gosaba in Baruipur diocese. He joined St. John Mary Vianney’s Minor Seminary, Barasat and then studied at Regional Major Seminary Morning Star, Kolkata, and at St. Albert’s College, Ranchi.
He was ordained a priest for Baruipur diocese on May 5, 1991. He obtained a Licentiate in Biblical Theology from St. Peter’s Pontifical College, Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in 2010. He began his priestly ministry as the assistant parish priest of St. Anthony’s Church, Keorapukar.
He was the director of Palli Unnayan Samiti, the Diocesan Social Service Centre for eight years from 1998. He was the vicar general and chancellor of the diocese during 200-2006.
He was appointed director of the Regional Social Centre, Association of Bengal Collaborators for Development in 2011.
As the coadjutor bishop, he will automatically succeed when the current prelate, Bishop Salvadore Lobo retires.
Baruipur, with lots of rivers and clusters of islands, is situated in the southeastern part of West Bengal. The diocese now comprises of South 24 Parganas district, part of North 24 Parganas district and a part of Kolkata metropolis.
According to cbci.in, the Catholic population in the diocese was 62,847 in 2018.