By Matters India Reporter
Kottayam, Aug 29, 2020: Pope Francis on August 29 appointed Father George Kurisummoottil as the auxiliary bishop of Kottayam Syro-Malabar archdiocese to take care of its Knanaya faithful from Syro-Malankara Church.
The new bishop is currently the vicar general for the Syro-Malankara faithful of the archdiocese. Father Kurisummottil has chosen the name Gheevarghese Mar Aprem.
The new bishop was born on August 9, 1961, in Tiruvalla, Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. He entered St. Stanislaw’s Minor Seminary in Kottayam after primary school.
He did his philosophical and theological studies in St. Joseph’s Interdiocesan Seminary in Mangalore.
After his priestly ordination on December 27, 1987, he was vice-rector of the minor seminary for three years.
He served for ten years in various parishes, before earning his Master’s degree in Sacred Art at Holy Spirit Maronite University in Kaslik (Lebanon), where he resided from 2001 to 2004.
Following high school, he taught iconography at the St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute and icon theology at St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary.
He was the director of the “Hadusa” Commission for the Performing Arts of Kottayam archdiocese from 2009 to 2013.
Since 2014 he has been parish priest of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Ranni.
In 2019, he was appointed the vicar general for the Syro-Malankara faithful entrusted to the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of Kottayam.
Rather confusing. Does he belong to the Syro-Malabar or Syro-Malankara Rite? Also the Knanayas are an endogamous group that forbid marriage outside their bloodline. It is another form of casteism. Is there place for such groups in a church that claims that we are all children of God?