By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi: Pope Francis has appointed Father Varghese Vinayanand Vekkal as the apostolic administrator of the Gurgaon Syro-Malankara diocese.

The appointment came August 28, two days after Bishop Jacob Barnabas Chacko Aerath of Gurgaon died of post Covid complications in a private hospital in New Delhi.

The gathering at St Mary’s Cathedral, Neb Sarai, New Delhi
An official communication from Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, head of the Syro-Malankara Church, said the appointment took effect from August 28.

The August 28 communication also said the new administrator took the oath of fidelity and secrecy immediately after Archbishop Thomas Koorilos of Tiruvalla announced his name at a function in St Mary’s Cathedral in Neb Sarai, south Delhi.

Archbishop Koorilos had represented the cardinal at the funeral of Bishop Barnabas.

The cardinal thanked the Pope and the nuncio in New Delhi for the prompt appointment of the administrator.

Father Vekkal is a member of the Order of the Imitation of Christ, a clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right under the Oriental Church. He entered the congregation on May 7, 1994, and was ordained a priest on November 24, 2003.