By Matters India Reporter

Bengaluru, Nov 11, 2022: Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur has been elected president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), the national body that represents more than 22 million Catholics in the country.

The conference’s general body that met in Bengaluru Nov 6-11 also elected Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras-Mylapore and Bishop Joseph Thomas of Batheri as the first and second vice presidents of the conference.

The meeting reelected Archbishop Felix Machado as the secretary general.

The elections took place on November 10, the penultimate day of the plenary meeting.

Under the 1987 papal directive on the rites in India, the post of the CBCI has been rotated among India’s three ritual Churches – Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara.

Pope John Paul II´s May 27, 1987, letter asked the three rites to set up their own bishops´ conferences and directed the CBCI to continue with “questions of common concern and of a national and supra-ritual character.”

Hailed now as “a watershed” in the Indian Church, the letter sought to resolve inter-rite rivalry and help the Church present a united witness to Christ in the multireligious country.

Archbishop Thazhath from the Syro-Malabar Church replaces Cardinal Oswald Gracias of the Latin Church.

The first vice president and the secretary general belong to the Latin Church while the second vice president represents the Syro-Malankara Church.

Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, was expected to be elected the CBCI president,

However, the 77-year-old cardinal announced before the elections that he would not be available for elections because of his age, according to a press release issued by the CBCI press office.

The cardinal also faces several court cases in connection with the sale of land belong to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly. On November 9, the Kerala High Court asked Cardinal Alencherry to appear before a court in connection with cases related to a land sale.

The top court in Kerala dismissed the cardinal’s plea seeking exemption from personal appearance before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kakkanad, a suburb of Kochi.

Archbishop Thazhath was born at Pudukkad in Trissur district on December 13, 1951. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Trichur on March 14, 1977. He holds doctor’s degree in Eastern Canon Law from the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.

He was nominated the Auxiliary Bishop of Trichur archdiocese on March 19, 2004, when he was serving working chairperson and managing director of Jeevan Telecasting Corporation and the president of the Oriental Canon Law Society of India.

He was ordained bishop on the May 1, 2004 and succeeded Archbishop Jacob Thoomkuzhy as the head of the Trichur archdiocese on January 22, 2007. He was the secretary general and president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council and the first vice president of the CBCI.

Archbishop Antonysamy was born Feb. 15, 1952, in Trichy, Tamil Nadu. He did his early school education in his native place and then joined St. Augustine’s Minor Seminary. On August 4, 2005, he was elected by Pope Benedict XVI as the bishop of Trichy.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him apstolic nuncio to West African Countries and then the archbishop of Madras and Mylapore on Nov. 21, 2012.

Bishop Thomas was born May 13, 1952, as Joseph Konnath in Vadaserikkara, a village in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. He joined the St. Aloysius Seminary in June 1968. He studied theology at Pontifical Seminary, Alwaye, and was ordained a priest on December 23, 1978. He was appointed the third bishop of the eparchy of Bathery on April 13, 2010.

Archbishop Machado was born on June 6, 1948, in Remedy in Vasai diocese. He was ordained priest on October 30, 1976, for the Archdiocese of Bombay. On May 22, 1998, he was incardinated in the diocese of Vasai. He was appointed as the bishop of Nashik on January 16, 2008. On November 10, 2009, he was transferred to the diocese of Vasai. Pope Benedict XVI granted him the personal title of Archbishop as he had worked in the Vatican Curia.