Media Release

Bengaluru, Dec 17: Fr Joseph Kalathiparambil (68) archbishop of Verapoly has been appointed by Pope Francis as one of the members of the congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples for five years. This is the second time he has been appointed as the member of the congregation. The first appointment was from 2011 to 2016.

Archbishop Joseph Kalathiparambil was born on October 6, 1952, at Vaduthala, in Ernakulam district, Kerala. He was ordained as a priest on March 13, 1978. He has specialized in Canon Law from Rome and was appointed vice-rector of Collegio San Paolo in Rome from 1984 to 1989. Later, he returned to Kerala and was appointed chancellor of the archdiocese of Verapoly on August 15, 1989. He served as the chancellor for the archdiocese from 1989 to 1996.

He was granted the title of the Chaplain of His Holiness, Monsignor, in 1989 by Pope St John Paul II. He served as the vicar-general of the archdiocese from 1996 to 2002. He was advanced to the papal prelacy of honour on January 31, 2001. He was nominated as the fifth bishop of Calicut on April 19, 2002, and was ordained bishop on May 19, 2002.

He also served as the bishop of Calicut for nine years and was then appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants on February 22, 2011. On March 5, 2011, he was also appointed as a member of the congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. On October 31, 2016, he was appointed as the ninth archbishop of Verapoly.