Kochi: The Syro-Malabar church, one of the prominent constituents of the Catholic church, will launch its one-year long celebration of its attaining the archieprachy status on Saturday.
Pope John Paul II had on December 16, 1992 signed the decree raising the church as a major archiepiscopal church giving it autonomy on several counts including in the selection of bishops and of the major archbishop who is the head of the church. The pope also named Mar Antony Padiyara as the first Major Archbishop and Mar Abraham Kattumana as pontifical delegate. While Mar Varkey Vithayathil who succeeded Mar Padiyara was also the choice of the Holy See, the present incumbent Mar George Alenchery was selected by the synod, which is the congregation of all the bishops of the church.
The church, which has 32 dioceses –of them 29 are in India-- and 58 bishops at present, serves the 50 lakh followers spread across the globe. Chicago in the United State, Melbourne in Australia and Preston in the United Kingdom are its dioceses outside India.
In the church hierarchy, the major anchieparchies come next to patriarchates. The Catholic church has three more archi-eparchies: The Syro-Malankara Catholic church, Ukranian Greek Catholic church and Romanian-Greek Catholic church.
Mar Alenchery, the first elected head of the church, will inaugurate the celebrations at the church’s headquarters at St Thomas Mount, Kakkanad, Kochi on Saturday. All the bishops of the church along with the faithful will attend the function. He will also release the pastoral decree to mark the silver jubilee.
“The church will go for modest ways to celebrate the jubilee,” its spokesperson Fr Jimmy Poochakkatt said.
