Soosapakiam installed as Archbishop

The first Archbishop of the newly–elevated Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram, Soosapakiam, was recently installed in a grand ceremony.

The ceremony was led by the Vatican Nuncio Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, the representative of Pope John Paul II. Several Archbishops, bishops, priests, nuns and members of the laity took part in the event at the St Sebastian Church Ground.

The Latin Catholic Diocese of Thiruvananthapuram was elevated to Archdiocese by the Pope on June 17 by bifurcating the Varappuzha Archdiocese. Of the 11 Dioceses of the Church in Kerala, five are with the new Archdiocese while the other six remained with the Varappuzha Archdiocese. Of the two million Latin Catholic population in the State, nearly one million would come under the new Archdiocese.

The ceremony began with a Holy Mass, followed by a reading out of the order of Pope John Paul II. After addressing the gathering, Archbishop Quintana put the Pallium on Archbishop Soosapakiam, marking the association of the Archdiocese with the Vatican.

The Thiruvananthapuram Archdiocese, which completed 67 years, has 70 parishes and 52 sub–parishes under it. There are 96 parish priests, 88 mission priests and 500 nuns. It has 97 educational institutions, 17 hospitals and 46 other institutions in the social service sector.

Archbishop Soosapakiam was born in Marthandathura on March eleven, 1946. He completed his theological education from Karmala Giri, Mangalapuzha Seminary in 1966 and received his priestly ordination on December 20, 1969 from Bishop Peter Bernard.

He was made the Diocese Councillor and Director of priest training in 1989, and appointed auxiliary bishop of Thiruvananthapuram Diocese on December 2, 1989 by Pope John Paul II. Subsequently, he was made the bishop of Thiruvananthapuram Diocese.