Knanaya Catholic Region of St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago | |
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Location | |
Country | USA |
Territory | United States |
Ecclesiastical province | Knanaya Catholic Region |
Statistics | |
Parishes | 8 missions |
Churches | 14 |
Congregations | 4 convents |
Information | |
Denomination | Eastern Catholic |
Rite | Syro-Malabar |
Established | 28 April 2006 |
Secular priests | 18 |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Major Archbishop | Mar Raphael Thattil |
Bishop | Mar Joy Alappatt |
Vicar General | Fr. Thomas Mulavanal |
Bishops emeritus | Mar Jacob Angadiath |
Website | |
www.knanayaregion.us www.knanayaregion.org |
Knanaya Region is a subdivision of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago. This region was officially established by Mar Jacob Angadiath, the bishop of the diocese on 30 April 2006. On that day, the bishop appointed Fr. Abraham Mutholath, the then Vicar General for Knanaya Community, as the first director of the Knanaya Region. [1] The purpose of this region is to coordinate all the pastoral activities of the diocese under the leadership of Knanaya Region director who is also one of the Vicar Generals of the diocese.
According to the decree of the Bishop, all Knanaya Catholic parishes, Knanaya missions, and all the Knanaya Catholic faithful who live in the USA outside the proper territory of an established Knanaya Catholic parish or mission will come under this region. [2] This is a personal jurisdiction style followed in the Syro-Malabar Church in India where the Archbishop of Kottayam has personal jurisdiction over all the Knanaya Catholics within the juridical boundary of the Syro-Malabar Church.
The Knanaya Catholic Region has five forane parishes, 14 parishes, eight missions, and four convents.
Knanaya Catholics from the Archdiocese of Kottayam, Kerala began to migrate to the United States in the 1950s. They came mainly for education and later for job opportunities. However, they eventually settled in this country and brought their family also to the United States. When they came to this foreign land, they missed their Syro-Malabar Malayalam Qurbana and wanted to arrange it for prayer followed by a social gathering. They arranged such Holy Mass whenever they could get a Syro-Malabar priest who came either for studies or for work in American parishes.
The Knanaya Catholics in Chicago organized and appealed to the Bishop of Kottayam Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry on 17 January 1981 to send a priest to meet their pastoral needs in the Syro-Malabar Rite. Since the Bishop of Kottayam has no ecclesiastical jurisdiction outside the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, he wrote a letter to Cardinal John Cody, the Archbishop of Chicago, on 18 March 1981, seeking his help to establish a special ministry for Knanaya Catholics in Chicago. Because of some confusion the cardinal postponed his decision.
When Joseph Bernardin became the new Archbishop of Chicago, Bishop Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry wrote to him asking to reconsider the former request to start a special ministry for Knanaya Catholics in Chicago. At the direction of the Archbishop of Chicago, his chancellor convened a meeting of the Knanaya Associations on 27 September 1983, and decided to start the proposed ministry. Bishop Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry sent Fr. Jacob Chollampel from the diocese of Kottayam in October 1983 to serve the newly constituted ministry. [3]
Following the example of Knanaya Catholics in Chicago, the Knanaya Catholic migrants in the other cities of the United States also applied to their local Latin bishops to start Knanaya Catholic missions for them. Bishop Kunnacherry also recommended for the same and sent priests from the Diocese of Kottayam to serve the Knanaya Catholic Missions established by the Latin bishops. Thus the Latin Catholic dioceses in the United States established nine Knanaya Catholic missions before the establishment of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago in 2001. They are Chicago (1983), Brooklyn, NY (1993), Westchester and Bronx, NY (1993), Houston (1994), Dallas (1996), Newark, New Jersey (1996), Rockland, NY (1996), Philadelphia (1999), and San Jose (2000).
When Pope John Paul II established the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago in 2001, all the Knanaya Catholic faithful in the United States who had become part of the local Latin parishes and the nine Knanaya Catholic Missions under the Latin bishops came under the pastoral jurisdiction of this diocese. [4] Considering the desire of the community and to help him with the pastoral administration of the Knanaya Catholic faithful in the diocese, Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath appointed Rev. Fr. Abraham Mutholath on 3 October 2001 as one of the two Vicar Generals (Syncellus) of the diocese with special charge of the Knanaya Catholics. Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath officially accepted all the Knanaya Catholic missions in the United States on 29 October 2003 as part of his diocese and asked the mission directors to continue their service in their respective missions.
First Vicar General Fr. Abraham Mutholath motivated the Knanaya Catholic faithful in the different parts of the United States to start Knanaya Missions wherever possible and to buy churches to grow as parishes. The first church was brought in the City of Maywood in Chicago in 2006. Later more churches and missions were added.
Since the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago is spread all over the United States, Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath established seven regions in his diocese on 28 April 2006. One of these regions is for all Knanaya Catholics in the diocese. According to the decree issued by the bishop, "The formal Knanaya Catholic missions and the faithful of the Knanaya community living in other places where no formal missions are established will make one region". [5] Vicar General Fr. Abraham Mutholath is appointed as the director of this region. The official declaration of this region was held at OLV Church Chicago on 30 April 2006, by Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath.
Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath appointed Fr. Thomas Mulavanal as the Vicar General and director of the Knanaya Catholic Region on 8 February 2014.
Mar Jacob Angadiath raised the following parishes of the Knanaya Region of the diocese into forane status on 28 February 2015: [6]
The parishes and missions that come under Chicago Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
The parishes and missions that come under Houston Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
The parishes and missions that come under Tampa Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
The parishes and missions that come under New York Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
The parishes and missions that come under San Jose Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam
Sacred Heart Knanaya Catholic Church, Chicago
The Syro-Malabar Church, also known as the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic Church based in Kerala, India. It is a sui iuris (autonomous) particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO). The major archbishop presides over the entire church. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Raphael Thattil, serving since January 2024. The Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops canonically convoked and presided over by the major archbishop constitutes the supreme authority of the church. The Major Archiepiscopal Curia of the church is based in Kakkanad, Kochi. Syro-Malabar is a prefix reflecting the church's use of the East Syriac Rite liturgy and origins in Malabar. The name has been in usage in official Vatican documents since the nineteenth century.
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The Major Archeparchy of Ernakulam–Angamaly is the major archeparchy and the see of the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. It has been the major archeparchy since 1992 when the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church was elevated to the status of a major archiepiscopal church with Ernakulam-Angamaly as the primatal see. The major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly is the main bishop of the jurisdiction, at the same time the head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The eparchies of Kothamangalam and Idukki are the two suffragan eparchies of the major archeparchy.
The Eparchy of St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic of Chicago, also known as the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago, is a Syro-Malabar Catholic Church ecclesiastical territory or eparchy of the Catholic Church in the United States. Its episcopal seat is the Mar Thoma Sleeha Cathedral in the episcopal see of Chicago in Illinois state.
Cherpunkal is a small town in the Kottayam district of Kerala State in India on the Kottayam-Palai Road, seven kilometers from Palai city.
Charles Lavigne, S.J. was a Catholic bishop of the Latin Church from France who was appointed as the first Vicar Apostolic in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Vicariate of Kottayam on 20 May 1887. After shifting the seat of Kottayam Vicariate to Changanacherry on 16 September 1890, his term ended on 28 July 1896. He later served as the first Bishop of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka from 27 August 1898 until his death at Marvejols in France on 11 July 1913.
Mathew Makil was the second Vicar Apostolic and the first indigenous Vicar Apostolic of the Vicariate of Kottayam (Changanacherry), which is the Syro Malabar Archeparchy of Changanacherry today. Mathew Makil was also the first Vicar Apostolic of the Vicariate of Kottayam, which is the Knanaya Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam today. In 1896, he became the Vicar Apostolic of the Vicariate of Changanacherry, and in 1911, when a new Vicariate Apostolic of Kottayam was constituted exclusively for the Knanaya Catholics, Mathew Makil was transferred to Kottayam as its first Vicar Apostolic. He died at Kottayam on 26 January 1914 and he was declared as Servant of God on 26 January 2009.
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Kuriakose Kunnassery was a Syro-Malabar Catholic hierarch. He was the fourth bishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam and the first Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kottayam. He served as priest in the Diocese of Kottayam for 13 years from December 21, 1955 to February 24, 1968. Then he was bishop for 49 years from February 24, 1968 to June 14, 2017. Kunnacherry was head of the Diocese of Kottayam for 31 years from May 5, 1974 to December 19, 2005. He was elevated as Archbishop on May 19, 2005.
Mar Mathew Moolakkatt, an East Syriac knanaya Catholic Archbishop was born in Uzhavoor, India. Currently he is Archbishop of Knanaya Catholics of Kottayam Archeparchy, succeeding Kuriakose Kunnacherry upon his retirement, he is a member of the Order of St. Benedict. He was entrusted the whole Knanaya catholic community in 2006 January. His mother parish is St. Stephen's forane church uzhavoor. He was the synodal commission chairman of St. Thomas apostolic seminary Vadavathoor. He is one of the members of the permanent synod of the Syro Malabar Catholic Church
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Kalyan is an Eastern Catholic eparchy in India within the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, based in Kalyan, India. The eparchy was established to cater the spiritual needs of the Syro Malabar Christians based in the Indian State of Maharashtra including the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Pune and Nasik. Its first bishop was Mar Paul Chittilapilly. The current bishop is Mar Thomas Elavanal. The Eparchy celebrated its silver jubilee in the year 2013.
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