Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Changanassery

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The Metropolitan Archeparchy of Changanassery

Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Changanassery is a Roman Catholic Archdiocese in India, under the Syro-Malabar Church. Currently, it is the largest Catholic Diocese in India. It is one of the first two Vicariates and the second Metropolitan Archdiocese of the Syro - Malabar Hierarchy which can be considered as a prelude to the restoration of the identity of the Church in 1992 as a Sui Juris Church.

The Archdiocese has a total Catholic population of about 3,80,000. It contains three Dioceses - Pala, Kanjirappally and Thuckalay. It covers 13 Forane churches and more than 300 other churches in the Keralite districts of Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. It also manages a lot of Hospitals, Colleges, Schools - both general and those for the physically/mentally challenged, Orphanages, De-addiction centers and Old-age homes.

Mar Joseph Perumthottam is the current Archbishop; Mar Joseph Powathil is the Archbishop Emeritus.

1 Brief History
2 Suffragan dioceses
3 Bishops and Archbishops
4 First Vicar General
5 External links

[edit] Brief History

Since centuries, the district of Kottayam, hosted a large Nazrani population. Since then, the Taluk of Changanassery was predominently Catholic and other factions of Christians were notably less.

Pope Leo XIII, by his Bull Quod Jam Pridem dated 20 May 1887 established the two Apostolic vicariates - Kottayam and Trichur exclusively for the Syro Malabarians. Then the same Pope, by the Bull Quae Rei Sacrae dated 28 July 1896 established a new Vicariate - Ernakulam, with territories carved out from the two existing Vicariates. The territories moved from Kottayam Viacriate were Pallippuram, Edappally and Arakuzha.

Eventually, the Vicariate of Kottayam was renamed Changanassery, since this town had been the centre of Catholic activity {eg. the Changanassery Synod in 1888} and hence its headquarters was shifted to Changanassery in 1890. Later, a new Vicariate - Kottayam - was constituted in 1911 to mainly constitute churches from the taluk of Kottayam.

Further growth of the Diocese of Changanassery resulted in getting raised to the status of an Archdiocese by Pope Pius XII on 26 July 1956.