By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, April 2, 2022: The Catholic Church has lost another Church in the land of Telugu.
Bishop Emeritus Innayya Chinna Addagatla of Srikakulam died at 11:30 pm on April 1, at the residence of the local bishop. He was 84, says a report from Father Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in India.
The funeral will be at 10 am on April 4 the Srikakulam cathedral.
On March 30, the Church in the undivided Andhra Pradesh lost Bishop Mathew Cheriankunnel, the first bishop of Nalgonda diocese. He died in the regional house of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh. He was 91.
Bishop Addagatla served Srikakulam for 25 years from 1993. Earlier, he was the bishop of Nalgonda during 1989-1993.
He was born May 2, 1937, and ordained a priest on January 4, 1965. He appointed the second bishop of Nalgonda on April 17, 1989. His episcopal ordination was on June 29, 1989, at the Maria Rani Cathedral, Nalgonda.
Pope St. John Paul II erected the diocese of Srikakulam bifurcating the Archdiocese of Visakhapatnam on July 1, 1993 and Bishop Addagatla was transferred from Nalgonda to Srikakulam. He retired from the active ministry on December 12, 2018. He was a priest for 57 years and a bishop for 32 years.