New diocese for Syro-Malabar Church

Pope Francis has established an eparchy (diocese) for Australia’s Syro-Malabar Catholic community, to accommodate the big increase in Indian migration to Australia in recent years, writes Mark Brolly.

The appointment of Indian Bishop Bosco Puthur as first leader of the Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle of Melbourne on 11 January means Australia now has five Eastern Rite Catholic eparchies (the Ukrainians, Maronites, Melkites and Chaldeans are the others), plus other non-geographically based “dioceses” such as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross for ex-Anglicans.

Bishop Puthur is expected to be installed as eparch in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, by Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, on
25 March in the presence of Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.