By Stephen Alathara
Bangalore: Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil of Verapoly as a member of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples for five years.
This is the second time the 68-year-old Indian prelate joins the congregation. Earlier, he had served the commission for five years from 2011, says a press note from the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India.
Archbishop Kalathiparambil was born on October 6, 1952, at Vaduthala in Ernakulam district of Kerala. He was ordained a priest in 1978. He is specialized in Canon Law from Rome and served as the vice rector of Collegio San Paolo in Rome from 1984 to 1989.
On his return to Kerala, he was appointed chancellor of the Archdiocese of Verapoly in 1989, a post he held until 1996.
He served as the vicar general of the Archdiocese from 1996 to 2002 when he became the fifth bishop of Calicut and served it for nine years.
In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants. In the same year, he was also appointed as a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
He was appointed the ninth archbishop of Verapoly on October 31, 2016.