Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and wife Kamala were on Saturday with Archbishop Varghese Chakkalakkal at Bishop’s House in Kozhikode. |Picture source: K. Ragesh
Pope Francis elevated the Diocese of Calicat to the status of the Metropolitan Archdiocese on Saturday.
The news was under the direction of the Archbishop Mar Joseph Pamplany of Taraseri at 3.30 pm (noon in Rome) here.
The Archdiocese of Kalikat will use Kannur and Sultan Pet as its senators’ dioceses. Meanwhile, Bishop Valgus Chakkalakal of the Diocese of Kalikat will become the first metropolitan archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kalikat.
Bishops Alex Alex Vadakumthala of Kannur, Remigiose Inchananiyil of Thamaassery, Peter Abir Antonysamy of Sultanpet, Ambrose Puthenveettil of Kottappappuram and Antony Bishops Antony Bishops Antony valunkal of Varapuzha and Antony valunkal and of Kuruupapsery of Kannansery of Acconce of Dennis Kuruupppassery.
Several socio-political leaders including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Secretary General of the All India Parliamentary Committee KC Venugopal and Kozhikode MP MK Raghavan, Secretary General of the All India Parliamentary Committee KC Venugopal and Kozhikode visited Archbishop Chakkalakal to congratulate him on his elevation.
Archbishop Chakkalakal has decades of pastoral experience. He was ordained a priest in 1981 and was the first bishop of Kannur in 1998. He was transferred to Calicut in 2012. He served as secretary general of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) and currently leads the Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Bishops’ Council (KRLCBC) and the CCBI Commission for vocations, seminary and clergy.
publishing – April 13, 2025 02:22 AM IST
