By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Feb 27, 2024: Pope Francis on February 27 appointed Father Johannes Gorantla as the sixth bishop of Kurnool diocese in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
This appointment was made public at noon in Rome and its corresponding time in India on the bishop-elect’s 50th birthday.
Kurnool was with a bishop after Bishop Anthony Poola was transferred to Hyderabad as its archbishop in 2020.
Bishop Gorantla is a member of the Order of Discalced Carmelite. He is currently the rector of Collegio Teresianum in Rome, where he had studied theology as a seminarian, according to a press note from the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India.
He was born on February 27, 1974, at Nawabu peta in Vijayawada diocese.
He studied Philosophy at Sacred Heart Philosophical College, Alwaye, Kerela, and Theology at Pontifical Institute of Theology Teresianum, Rome. He made his solemn profession in April 2000, and was ordained a priest on January 10, 2002 at Thallada, Khammam.
He served as assistant parish priest at Kalluru, Khammam. He then obtained his Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from Biblicum, Rome and doctorate in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, in the same city.
He has served as the provincial of his congregation’s Andhra Province for six years, secretary of the OCD Inter Provincial Council of India and consulter for the Khammam diocese.
Simultaneously, he was a member of the commissions of Bible Proclamation under the Andhra Pradesh Bishops’ Council. He was a visiting professor of Sacred Scripture at Jyothribhavan, Kalamassery, Kerala and at St. Joseph’s Major Seminary, Khammam. He functioned as president, Andhra Pradesh Religious Conference and vice chairman, APBC Commission for Catholic Education.
During 2015-2021, he served as the definitor general of his congregation in Rome.
Kurnool diocese was erected bifurcating Nellore diocese on June 12, 1967, with Father Joseph Rayappa as its first bishop. He was succeeded by Bishops Mathew Cheriankunnel, a member of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, S A Aruliah, and G Johannes Gorantla, from whom Cardinal Poola took over.
The Catholic faith entered Andhra Pradesh through what is now the Kurnool diocese through the Jesuits who preached the faith in the early 18th century.
After the Jesuits’ withdrawal in 1773, the Paris Foreign Missionary Society took over the mission and kept the faith alive. In 1875, the Mill Hill Fathers served the western parts of the diocese for some time.