News from Vatican

Having accepted the resignation presented by His Lordship Rt. Rev. Thomas Thiruthalil, CM, Bishop of the Diocese of Balasore upon completing the age of 75, His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed, as new Bishop of the Diocese of Balosore, Rev. Fr.Simon Kaipuram, CM, until now Rector and Professor at Aquinas College, Gopalpur.

His Lordship Rt. Rev. Thomas Thiruthalil will remain as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Balasore until the day of the canonical taking possession of the new Bishop.

Erection of the new diocese of Sultanpet

On Saturday, 28 December the Holy Father erected the new diocese of Sultanpet (area 4,446, population 4,260,435, Catholics 30,975, priests 32, religious 111) India, with territory taken from the dioceses of Coimbatore and Calicut, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Verapoly.

He appointed Rev. Peter Abir Antonisamy as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Sathipattu, India in 1951, and was ordained a priest in 1979. He holds a master’s degree in biblical theology from St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute, Bangalore, India, a master’s degree in literature and history from the University of Titrupathy, India, a licentiate in sacred scriptures from the Biblicum in Rome, and a doctorate in sacred scriptures from the Gregorian Pontifical University, Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral and academic roles, including secretary to the archbishop of Bangalore and the chancellor of the Curia, professor of sacred scriptures at the Good Shepherd seminary, Coimbatore, parish priest of Kurumbagaram,  director of St. Paul’s Bible Institute, Poonamelle, deputy secretary of the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, co-ordinator of the Catholic Biblical Federation of South Asia, and director of the Tamil Nadu Biblical, Catechetical and Liturgical Centre. Since 2004 he is the director of the Emmaus Spirituality Centre, Sithanagur, which he founded in 2004.