Kottayam: Mar Kuriakose Kunnasserry, 88, the Archbishop Emeritus of the Kottayam Knanaya Catholic Archdiocese, passed away due to old age illness on Wednesday. The end came at 4.45 p.m. at the Caritas Hospital, Thellakom.
The body of Mar Kunnasserry will be placed at the Christ the King Cathedral here on Friday afternoon to enable the public to pay their last respects. The funeral will be held at a specially erected burial place next to the cathedral. Mar Kunnasserry was nominated as Bishop of Kepha and appointed Co-Adjutor Bishop of Kottayam on December 9, 1967.
Mar Kunnasserry became the Kottayam diocese auxiliary bishop on December 9th 1967 and Bishop on May 5th 1974. He became the Archbishop of the Kottayam Archdocese in May 2005 when Kottayam was elevated as an Archdiocese.
Mar Kunnasserry was born on September 11, 1928 at Kaduthuruthy in Kottayam district. He was ordained priest on December 21, 1955 in Rome and received doctorate in civil and canon laws from the University of Latern in Rome and master's degree in politics from the USA. On February 24, 1968, he received episcopal ordination at Sacred Heart Mount, Kottayam, from Cardinal Maximillian de Furstenberg, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
On the retirement of Mar Thomas Tharayil, he took charge of the diocese of Kottayam on May 5, 1974. In addition to Malayalam and English, he was well-versed in Italian, Latin, French, German and Syriac. He served regional, national and universal Church in various capacities.
He was a member of the Eastern Churches and a member of Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and served as the chairman of the Ecumenical and Inter-religious Dialogue Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) several times.
He was the chairman of the St. Joseph's Pontifical Seminary, Aluva, and chairman of the St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor. He was the VC of the Paurastiya Vidya-pitham, Vadavathoor. He has held offices in KCBC and the Syro-Malabar Bishops’ Conference. He was a member of permanent synod of the Syro-Malabar Archiepiscopal Church and member of Commission for Ecumenism and particular Law. He retired as Archbishop on Jan 14, 2006.
