Media Release
Bengaluru, Jan 29: The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) elects new chairmen for its 16 commissions on Sunday, January 29 during the 34 th plenary assembly.
New chairmen were elected: (1) Bishop Selvister Ponnumuthan, Bishop of Punalur, Kerala: chairman, commission for Basic Ecclesial Communities; (2) Bishop Antonysamy Savarimuthu, Bishop of Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu: chairman, Commission for Canon Law and Legislative Texts; (3) Bishop George Palliparambil, S.D.B., Bishop of Miao, Arunachal Pradesh: chairman, Commission for Catechetics; (4) Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, S.F.X., Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, Jharkhand: chairman, Commission for Ecology; (5) Bishop Barthol Barretto, Auxiliary Bishop of Bombay, Maharashtra: chairman, Commission for Family; (6) Archbishop Peter Machado, Archbishop of Bangalore, Karnataka: chairman, Commission for Laity; (7) Archbishop Sebastian Durairaj, S.V.D., Archbishop of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: chairman, Commission for Proclamation; (8) Bishop Vincent Aind, Bishop of Bagdogra, West Bengal: chairman, Commission for Theology and Doctrine; (9) Bishop Varghese Chakkalakal, Bishop of Calicut, Kerala: chairman Commission for Vocations, Seminaries, Clergy and Religious; (10) Bishop Kishore Kumar Kujur, Bishop of Rourkela, Odisha: chairman, Commission for Women; (11) Bishop Ignatius D’Souza, Bishop of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh: chairman, Commission for Youth.
The following Bishops were re-elected (1) Bishop Peter Abir Antonysamy, Bishop of Sultanpet, Kerala: chairman, Commission for Bible; (2) Bishop Francis Serrao, S.J., Bishop of Shimoga, Karnataka: chairman, Commission for Ecumenism; (3) Bishop Peter Paul Saldanha, Bishop of Mangalore, Karnataka: chairman, Commission for Liturgy; (4) Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur, Archbishop of Raipur, Chhattisgarh: chairman, Commission for Migrants.
His Eminence Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, the president of the CCBI, is the ex-officio chairman of the CCBI Commission for Boundary, which deals with the bifurcation of dioceses, creating new Archdioceses and elevating shrines or churches to the status of Basilica.
On the sixth day of the 34th Plenary Assembly of the CCBI, Abp. George Antonysamy, vice president and the Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore, was the main celebrant of the holy mass. During the business session, the Bishops voted and approved the Complementary Legislation of the Code of Canon Law. There are 43 new/revised laws which were approved for the Church in India and the same will come into effect after obtaining the confirmation from the Holy See.
The 34th Plenary Assembly will conclude tomorrow, on January 30 at 1pm. The assembly discussed the theme “Telling the Story of Jesus in our Context: The Synodal Way." The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India consists of 132 dioceses and 190 Bishops. The CCBI animates the Church in India through its 16 Commissions, 6 Departments and 4 Apostolates. Its main Secretariat is in Bengaluru with extensions in Goa, Delhi and Pachmarhi (MP). The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), which is the Canonical National Episcopal Conference, is the largest in Asia and the fourth largest in the world.