Kochi: 26 August 2015: Rev. Fr. Antony Kariyil, CMI, till now Director of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology, Kochi, as the new Bishop of the Eparchy of Mandya, in Karnataka. This provision was made public in Rome on Wednesday 26 August 2015 at noon local time, corresponding to 15:30 hours, Indian Standard Time. The Synod of Bishops assembled at Mount St. Thomas from 17 to 26 August 2015 elected Fr. Antony Kariyil CMI the second bishop of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Mandya in Karnataka.
Fr. Antony Kariyil, born on 26 March 1950 in the parish of Chalil, Cherthala, in the Arch-Eparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly. Having made his first religious profession in the CMI congregation on 16 May 1967 and final profession on 16 May 1971, he was ordained priest on 27 December 1977.
Fr. Antony Kariyil, the Bishop-elect, having a doctorate in Social Sciences, has worked as the Prior General of the CMI Congregation, Provincial Superior of the CMI Kalamasserry Province, National President of the Conference of Religious of India, Principal of Rajagiri College of Social Sciences and Christ College, Bangalore, etc. The new appointment has come to him while working as the Director of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology.
Eparchy of Mandya was established on 18 January 2010, bifurcating the eparchy of Mananthavady, and Bishop George Njaralakkatt was appointed the first Bishop of Mandya. The new appointment was necessitated when Bishop George Njaralakatt was appointed Archbishop of Tellicherry, after four commendable years of service in Mandya as its Bishop.
With the announcement of the new Bishop it was also made public that by its decree, Prot. N. 188/2014, dated 4 August 2015, the Congregation for the Eastern Churches has communicated that His Holiness Pope Francis, in the audience granted to the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation on 26 July 2015, has deigned to change the boundaries of the Eparchy of Mandya, and contemporaneously the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church, so as to include the civil districts of Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Chickballapur, Kolar, Ramnagar and Tumkur, at the same time, bringing all the Syro-Malabar faithful actually residing in these areas and those who will be residing there in the future under the jurisdiction of the Eparchy of Mandya. With this extension, the Syro-Malabar faithful in these areas have obtained the possibility of receiving pastoral care according to the ecclesial heritage of the Syro-Malabar Church.