Bangalore 13 May 2021 (CCBI) His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Siby Mathew Peedikayil (50) the member of the Heralds of Good News as the bishop of Aitape, a diocese in Papua New Guinea, a country in Oceania on 13 May 2021. He is currently the vicar general of the diocese of Vanimo in Papua New Guinea.
Fr. Siby was born on 6 December 1970 in Meloram near Peruvanthanam in the Idukki district of Kerala. He was ordained priest on 1 February1995. After ordination, he was the spiritual formation in-charge and procurator of St Joseph’s Major Seminary in Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, for a year. He was appointed the rector of the seminary in 2004, a post he held for four years. He then served as the parish priest of Pallegudem parish under the diocese of Khammam. He served as the general councillor to the congregation’s pontifical commissary for two years from 2006. He also served the congregation as the head of its St Paul province during 2008-2014.
Fr. Siby came to Papua New Guinea in 1998 and served as the rector of St John Vianney Diocesan Minor Seminary of Vanimo diocese for five years. He also taught in St Charles Borromeo Major Seminary under the same diocese from 1999 to 2004. He was the vocation director of the diocese for five years. He was the national director of Universal Living Rosary Association of Papua New Guinea for four years from 2000. He had earlier served as the diocese’s vicar general for a year in 2003.
He also served as the parish priest of St Bruno Parish under the Vanimo diocese. He also served as the pastoral episcopal vicar of the diocese and a member of the college of the diocesan consulters. In 2015, he was appointed professor at St. Charles Borromeo Major Seminary of the diocese. He is also the member of the diocesan financial committee and spiritual director of the Legion of Mary.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara
Deputy Secretary General, CCBI