New Syro Malabar Exarchate in Canada!

[Thomas48]

Dear Friends,

Pope Francis earlier this month (August 6) erected an Apostolic Exarchate for Syro-Malabar Catholics who are residents in Canada, nominating Father Jose Kalluvelil of the Eparchy of Palghat as its first bishop and assigning him the titular seat of Tabalta. The Exarchate extends throughout Canada, where Syro-Malabar Catholics have been present since the 1960’s. The new Exarchate has 18 parishes and missions, with a Catholic population of 15,000.

Sources:
en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/08/06/pope_francis_erects_new_syro-malabar_apostolic_exarchate/1163351

cccb.ca/site/eng/media-room/4240-new-apostolic-exarchate-for-the-syro-malabarian-catholics-in-canada

Blessed be God, this is wonderful news for the Syro Malabar Church in North America. Until this event all of our faithful in North America were under the St. Thomas Diocese of Chicago. I am very happy that our Church is rapidly growing in all parts of the world. However I am somewhat saddened that the Knanaya Catholics of North America seem to have been forgotten by our Mother Church. The Syro Malabar Church has repeatedly stated on occasion that the Knanaya Community in North America must “grow” in order for an exarchate/diocese to be erected or an ordinary to be consecrated. The Knanaya Community stands at 21 parishes/missions and 25,000+ faithful exceeding the number of the new Syro Malabar exarchate of Canada and even the entire Syro Malankara Exarchate in the United States. I do not wish to speak in an ill nature but I am beginning to feel some what cheated by my own Church.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Pope Francis earlier this month (August 6) erected an Apostolic Exarchate for Syro-Malabar Catholics who are residents in Canada, nominating Father Jose Kalluvelil of the Eparchy of Palghat as its first bishop and assigning him the titular seat of Tabalta. The Exarchate extends throughout Canada, where Syro-Malabar Catholics have been present since the 1960’s. The new Exarchate has 18 parishes and missions, with a Catholic population of 15,000.

I am just a poor Latin, ignorant of many practices and traditions of my Eastern brethren.

First, congratulations for these joyful events!

If his excellency (I hope I have styled that correctly) has a territorial see over Canada, why does he need a titular see?

tee

 

[malphono]

If his excellency (I hope I have styled that correctly) has a territorial see over Canada, why does he need a titular see?

tee

In English, I would say “His Grace” but never mind that.

Anyway, for the rest, it’s because it’s an Exarchate. A bishop assigned as an Exarch must have a titular see. Now, if an when this is elevated to an Eparchy, it will become a see in its own right, and so the bishop will abandon the titular see and hold the title of the Eparchy.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

To translate, an exarchate is the Eastern equivalent of a Latin apostolic vicariate.