New Delhi, January 7, 2012
Major Archbishop Mar George Alencherry
Pope Benedict XVI has named 22 new cadinals, including Archbishop Mar George Alencherry of India, who will take office during a consistory next month.
Eighteen of the new cardinals are under the age of 80 and therefore will have a vote in the conclave to elect the next pope.
The new cardinals include two clerics from Asia - Mar George Alencherry of the Syro Malabar Church in India and Bishop John Tong Hon of Hong Kong, taking the total voting members from Asia to nine.
Mar George Alencherry, 66, the fourth Keralite to receive the honour, is the spiritual leader of more than four million Syro Malabar faithful around the world.
Mar Joseph Parekkattil, Mar Antony Padiyara and Mar Varkey Vithayathil were the others made Cardinal earlier.
Mar George Alencherry has served as secretary of the Synod of Bishops and chairman of the Syro Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Commission for Catechism. He has also served as chairman of the Commission for Laity of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.
He was born on April 19, 1945 in the parish of Thuruthy in the archdiocese of Changancherry as the sixth child of the ten children of Philipose and Mary Alencherry of whom two others are priests. His baptismal name is Geevarghese.
Mar George Alencherry had his primary schooling at St Mary’s School, Thuruthy and secondary education at St Berchman’s High School, Changanacherry. He began his priestly formation in 1961 at the archdiocesan minor seminary at Parel, Changanacherry. While he pursued his studies in the minor seminary, he obtained his BA in economics with second rank from St Berchman’s College.
After the minor seminary studies he was sent to St Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary, Aluva where he completed his philosophical and theological studies. On 18 December 1972 Cardinal Antony Padiyara, the then archbishop of Chanagancherry, ordained him priest at St Mary’s Church, Thuruthy, for the archdiocese of Changanacherry. Later he continued his higher studies at the Pontifical Institute of Theology and Philosophy from where he obtained his master’s degree in first rank.
After completion of studies at Aluva, Mar George Alencherry was appointed as assistant vicar at the Cathedral church of Changanacherry and Director of the Archdiocesan Faith Formation department. Three years later, hewas sent to Paris for higher studies. There he pursued his studies at Sorbonne University and the Catholic Institute from where he obtained his doctorate in biblical theology. He returned to India in 1986.
When Pope John Paul II established the diocese of Thuckalay on 11th November 1996, Mar George Alencherry was appointed its first bishop. He was ordained bishop on 2nd February 1997 at Thuckalay by Mar Joseph Powathil, the then archbishop of Changanacherry.
Mar George Alencherry has to his credit a book titled Morality Today and Tomorrow in Malayalam and a number of articles on various topics in English and Malayalam. The new major archbishop is proficient in Malayalam, Tamil, English and French.
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