Calicut elevated to Archdiocese; Chakkalakal named Archbishop

Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his wife Kamala with Archbishop Varghesses Chakkalakkal at the Bishop’s house in Kozhikode on Saturday. | Photo credit: K. Ragesh

Pope Francis raised the Diocese of Calicut to the state of the metropolitan archdiocese on Saturday.

The announcement was made at 3.30 pm (noon in Rome) by Mar Joseph Pamplany, the Archbishop of Thalassery, about the Pope’s instructions in the Bishop’s house in Malaparamba here.

The Archdiocese of Calicut will have Kannur and Sultanpet as their suffragan dioceses. Meanwhile, Bishop Varghe Chakkalakalak of the Diocese or Calicut will become the first metropolitan archbishop of the Archdiocese or Calicut.

Bishops Alex Vadakumthala or Kannur, Remigiosis Inhananiyil or Thamarrasserry, Peter Abir Antonysamy or Sultanpet, Ambrose Puthenettil or Kottappuram and the Auxiliary Bishops Antonyy Valonkyhha and Dennis Kurupassey and Dennis Kurupassey and Dennis Kurupsery and Dennis Keurupsery and Dennis Kurupserry and Dennis Kurupasser and Dennis Kurupassy and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis and Dennis.

Several sociopolitical leaders, including Prime Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the general secretary of the Committee of the Congress of India, Venuge KC, and the deputy of Kozhikode, MK Raghavan, visited the Archbishop Chakkalakal to congratulate him for his elevation.

The Archbishop Chakkalakal comes with decades of pastoral experience. He was Ordained to Priest in 1981 and was the First Bishop of Kannur in 1998. Ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) and ccbi) ‘Kersceps’ Bishops ‘KRLCBB CCBB) and the CCBI commissions) and CCBI)’ Seminars and clergy.