By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, June 7, 2025: Pope Leo XIV on June 7 appointed Father Jose Sebastian Thekkumcherikunnel as the new bishop of Jalandhar, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India reports.

The announcement of the appointment was made at 12 noon in Rome and its corresponding time in India.

Jalandhar that covers the northern Indian state of Punjab and parts of Haryana was under an apostolic administrator since 2018 when Bishop Franco Mulakkal stepped aside from the office after serving the diocese for 15 years.

Bishop-elect Thekkumcherikunnel is the current financial administrator of the diocese since 2022. The 63-year-old also serves as the parish priest of St. Joseph’s Church in Phagwara, some 25 km southeast of Jalandhar, and director of St. Joseph’s Convent School there.

He was born on December 24, 1962, at Chemmalamatam, under the diocese of Palai. He was ordained a priest on May 1, 1991, for Jalandhar diocese.

He began his priestly formation in 1978 at the minor seminary in Trichur. He studied philosophy and theology at St. Charles Inter-Diocesan Seminary, Nagpur, during 1982-1991. He later obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Urban University in Rome from 2002 to 2004.

The bishop-elect began his ministry as assistant parish priest of St. Mary’s Church in Fatehgarh Churian, while also teaching at the Minor Seminary in Amritsar. He then served as parish priest of St. Joseph’s Church in Khasa and Sacred Heart Church on Majitha Road, Amritsar.

He was later appointed vice rector of the Minor Seminary, assistant director, and later principal of St. Francis School.

During 1996-2002, he served as dean and parish priest of St. Francis Church in Amritsar and later at Jandiala Guru, a town in Amritsar district. He was also a member of the Diocesan Board of Education, the presbyteral council, and the charismatic team.

After his studies in Rome, Father Thekkumcherikunnel returned to Jalandhar to serve as vice chancellor, defender of the bond, and director of village catechesis.

He was the chancellor and judicial vicar of the diocese for 13 years from 2007.

He also taught at the Holy Trinity Regional Major Seminary in Jalandhar and served as the head of the Theology Department and a member of the seminary’s governing council.

He served as rector and parish priest of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Jalandhar Cantonment during 2020-2022.

Jalandhar was part of the Diocese of Lahore, now in Pakistan, under Belgian Capuchin missionaries. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Pope Pius XII erected the Apostolic Prefecture of Jalandhar in 1952 and entrusted it to the British Capuchins, with Monsignor Francis Alban Swarbrick as the first prefect.

Pope Paul VI elevated it as a diocese in 1971 and appointed Capuchin Bishop Symphorian Keeprath as its first bishop. He was succeeded by Bishop Anil Couto in 2007, who served until his transfer as archbishop to Delhi in 2012.

Bishop Mulakkal was appointed in 2013. Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias, Emeritus Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay, served the diocese as the apostolic administrator since 2018.

The diocese covers 18 districts in Punjab and parts of Himachal Pradesh. It has 123,434 Catholics, 214 priests, 897 religious sisters, and 147 parishes.