Matters India Reporter

Bangalore, September 21, 2023: Pope Francis on September 21 appointed Father Lourdu Anandam as the bishop of Sivagangai, a diocese of southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The 65 year old bishop elect is a clergy of the Archdiocese of Madurai, currently the parish priest of the Holy Rosary Church and director of the Pastoral Centre and Coordinator of the Archdiocesan Commissions. Father Anandam will be the third bishop of the diocese.

The diocese was without a prelate after the retirement of Bishop Jebamalai Susaimanickam on Sept. 25, 2020. The diocese was administered by bishop Stephen Antony of Tuticorin.

The bishop-elect Anandam was born on August 15, 1958 in Thiruvarangam, in the Diocese of Sivagangai. After studying philosophy at Arul Anandar College in Madurai and theology at St. Paul’s Seminary in Tiruchirappalli, he obtained a doctorate in systematic theology from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (Germany). He was ordained a priest on 6 April 1986 for the Archdiocese of Madurai.

After ordination, he served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Madurai from 1986to 1989. During 1995to 1999 he served as the parish priest of Sacred Heart, Kodaikanal. From 1999 to 2004 he served as a Professor of Theology at the Sacred Heart Seminary in Chennai. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic weekly Nam Vazhvu – A Tamil Catholic Weekly in Chennai from 2004-2011. 2011 he was appointed as the Rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in Madurai.

Pope St John Paul II on July 3, 1987 erected of the diocese of Sivagangai bifurcating it from Madurai archdiocese. The territory of the diocese includes two civil districts Ramanathapuram and Sivagangai. The Sivagangai diocese stretches from the Madurai district border to the Bay of Bengal and it has a long coast in the East and South East measuring 265 kilometers.

St. John de Britto (1693), entered the region as a Jesuit missionary from Europe and became the bedrock of faith for thousands of people. He was beheaded at Oriyur on February 4, 1693. The Catholic population is 1, 82,150, parishes 82, diocesan priests 98, religious priests 79, religious sisters 453.