Pope agrees to appointments of two bishops chosen by Syro-Malabar Church for India 

A Synodal Mass in progress at St. Dominic’s Church at Aluva in the Ernakulam Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church on July14, 2024. / Credit: Anto Akkara

Vatican City, Aug 30, 2024 / 13:40 pm (CNA).

The Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic rite in full communion with Rome, appointed two new bishops for Changanacherry and Shamshabad in India on Friday.

The appointments come after years of internal tensions among Syro-Malabar Church leaders regarding a synodal, unified liturgy of the ancient Oriental Church.

In May, Pope Francis warned the Church’s leaders that division comes from the work of “the devil, the divider” and that unity of the Eastern Church with Rome is essential.

“Apart from Peter, apart from the major archbishop, there is no Church,” stated the Holy Father in the May meeting with leaders and members of the Syro-Malabar Church at the Vatican.

On the July 3 feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, the patron of the Syro-Malabar Church, a compromise was reached to resolve the liturgical feud sharply dividing leaders and the faithful of the Eastern-rite Church.

“The Holy Qurbana [Mass] should not be the reason for division in the Church,” Syro-Malabar Church spokesman Father Antony Vadakkekara told CNA in July. “That is why the synod made the compromise proposal to say at least one synodal Mass in each of the parishes [in India].”

Approximately 5 million people belong to the Syro-Malabar Church worldwide across eparchies (dioceses) in India, the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Auxiliary Bishop Major Thomas Tharayil will soon become the major archbishop of Changanacherry following the resignation of major archbishop Joseph Perumthottam. He has served as auxiliary bishop in the archeparchy since 2017.

Tharayil was ordained to the priesthood on Jan. 1, 2000, and served as a deputy parish priest for various parishes in Changanacherry after completing his psychology doctorate at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome.

Major Antony Prince Panengaden, bishop-elect of Shamshabad chosen by the Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops, was ordained a priest in 2007 after completing studies in philosophy at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram Institute in Bangalore and in theology at the Ruhalaya Major Seminary in Ujjain.

During his 17-year pastoral ministry, Panengaden served as a priest in parishes in Goa and Adilabad and also obtained a doctorate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. In 2015, he was elected and installed as bishop of the Adilabad eparchy.

The Syro-Malabar Church dates its historical origins to the evangelizing mission of St. Thomas the Apostle to southern India in the first century.