Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Shamshabad Eparchia Shamshabadensis | |
|---|---|
| Catholic | |
| Location | |
| Country |  India |
| Territory | Covers 23 states and 4 union territories including 2 islands [1] |
| Statistics | |
| Population - Catholics | (as of 2022) 123,735 [a] |
| Parishes | 37 parishes, 69 missions [2] |
| Churches | 11 functional, 7 under construction, as of 2017[ citation needed ][ needs update ] |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic Church |
| Sui iuris church | Syro-Malabar Church |
| Rite | East Syriac Rite [3] |
| Established | 10 October 2017 |
| Cathedral | St. Alphonsa Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Kukatpally |
| Patron saint |
|
| Secular priests | 72 (52 diocesan, 20 religious) [a] |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Major Archbishop | Raphael Thattil |
| Bishop | Antony Prince Panengaden |
| Auxiliary Bishops | |
| Map | |
 | |
| Website | |
| shamshabaddiocese | |
The Eparchy of Shamshabad is an eparchy of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Telangana, India. It was established by Pope Francis on 10 October 2017, and Raphael Thattil was appointed its first bishop. [6] In a letter to the bishops of India, Francis cited India's decades of experience with "overlapping jurisdictions" of different sui iuris churches. He wrote: "With the growth of spiritual friendship and mutual assistance, any tension or apprehension should be swiftly overcome. May this extension of the pastoral area of the Syro-Malabar Church in no way be perceived as a growth in power and domination, but as a call to deeper communion, which should never be perceived as uniformity." [7]
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The new jurisdiction was inaugurated with Thattil's installation on 7 January 2018. [8] The cathedral is the St. Alphonsa Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at Kukatpally, in Greater Hyderabad.
There are 130,000 Catholics in the Shamshabad diocese with eleven functional churches and seven under construction. [9]
