George Alencherry


George Alencherry is the Major Archbishop Emeritus of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church after serving in the position from 2011 to 2023. He is also a cardinal of the Catholic Church.
He was elected by the Holy Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church in 2011 to succeed Varkey Vithayathil. He was created a cardinal on 18 February 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. He was the first bishop of Thuckalay from 1997 to 2011 before his enthronement as the major archbishop.

Early life and career

George Alencherry was born on 19 April 1945, the sixth of ten children born to Mary and Philipose Alencherry, in Thuruthy. Geevarghese is his baptismal name. Alencherry attended primary school at St Mary's School in Thuruthy and then St. Berchman's High School in Changanacherry. In 1961 he entered the archdiocesan minor seminary at Parel, Changanacherry. While he studied there, he obtained his bachelor's degree in economics from St. Berchmans College in Changanacherry. He completed his philosophy and theology studies at St. Joseph's Pontifical Seminary in Aluva.
On 18 December 1972, Antony Padiyara, archbishop of Chanagancherry, ordained him a priest at St. Mary's Church in Thuruthy for the archdiocese of Changanacherry. He continued his studies at the Pontifical Institute of Theology and Philosophy, earning a master's degree in the first rank. While Alencherry was studying in Aluva, he served as vicar of the filial church at Periyarmugham in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly. After completing his studies at Aluva, Alencherry was appointed assistant vicar at the cathedral church of Changanacherry and Director of the Archdiocesan Faith Formation department. Thereafter he served three years as secretary of the Commission for Catechism of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council. He then studied in Paris at Sorbonne University and the Catholic Institute, where he obtained a doctorate in biblical theology. Returning to India in 1986, Alencherry was appointed director of the Pastoral Oriental Centre at Palarivattom and deputy secretary of KCBC, serving until 1993. During these years he was also a professor at St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary in Vadavathoor, where he continued until 1997. From 1994 to 1996 he was the protosyncellus, roughly the equivalent of vicar general in the Latin church, of the archeparchy of Changanacherry.

Ecclesial service

Bishop of Thuckalay

erected the Diocese of Thuckalay by the papal bull Apud Indorum on 11 November 1996. It was formed by separating the territory of the Archdiocese of Changanassery that included parts of the state of Tamil Nadu. Alencherry was appointed bishop of the new eparchy. The establishment of the diocese and Alencherry's appointment were promulgated on 18 December 1996. Alencherry was consecrated a bishop on 2 February 1997 by Joseph Powathil, Metropolitan Archbishop of Changanassery, with Mathew Vattackuzhy, Bishop of Kanjirappally, and Lawrence Aprem, Bishop of Marthandam, as co-consecrators. He was installed as bishop on the same day by Varkey Vithayathil, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church.

Major Archbishop

In May 2011, the bishops' synod of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church elected Alencherry to succeed Varkey Vithayathil as Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly and head of the Syro-Malabar Church. His election received papal approval and was announced simultaneously in Rome and at the synod on 26 May. He was the first head of the Syro-Malabar Church to be elected by its synod. Alencherry declared his service would be for all the people of India, stressing ecumenical relations among Christians and harmony with other religions.
On 18 February 2012, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Alencherry to the rank of cardinal during a ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica, creating him Cardinal-Priest of San Bernardo alle Terme.
Alencherry's visit to Rome for that consistory coincided with the arrest of Italian merchant marine officers on board the Enrica Lexie who shot and killed two Kerala fishermen on a fishing vessel. Alencherry provided a statement to the Italian news service Agenzia Fides that "This episode must be investigated: if there is a guilty action, it must be treated legally and the guilty must be punished. We must fully respect truth and justice." He denied any interest in serving as a mediator. He had previously been quoted accusing some Kerala politicians of exploiting the incident for their own purposes and seemed to suggest he was actively seeking to resolve the dispute. Upon his return to India, he expressed unreserved sympathy for the families of the dead fishermen and ascribed any other misunderstandings to misquotes by Fides.
On 24 April 2012, Alencherry was made a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Congregation for the Oriental Catholic Churches.
Alencherry participated as a cardinal-elector in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. During the conclave, Alencherry was one of the four cardinal-electors from outside the Latin Church who wore different vestments, proper to their respective churches.
Following a series of attacks on Catholic properties, on 17 February 2015 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a ceremony celebrating two new Indian saints, expressed strong support for "equal respect for all religions" and denounced sectarian violence, but Alencherry warned that proposed anti-conversion legislation contradicted that rhetoric.
He underwent angioplasty on 8 December 2017.
An internal investigation by the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly determined it had suffered large losses on speculative real estate deals made by Alencherry without adhering to procedural safeguards. The archeparchy's priests' council called on the pope to take action against Alencherry and in February 2018 the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church, apparently with Alencherry in agreement, withdrew Alencherry's authority over the archeparchy's administrative and economic affairs. It allowed him to continue to exercise his pastoral and liturgical roles. From that time until his resignation, responsibility for the archeparchy's financial affairs passed to a series of prelates named by the Synod or Pope Francis.
In December 2019 Alencherry was elected head of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, a state-wide organization of Catholic bishops. This move subsequently met with criticism from a section of believers in the Church owing to accusations of corruption against him in a land deal case from 2016. As president of the Kerala Catholic Bishop's Conference, he made all Catholic hospitals open and available for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
In December 2019 Alencherry called upon the Union government to reconsider the Citizenship Act, 2019, saying the act lacked clarity in many areas. He said "The problems should not become communal. There should be no conflict between religions or between states." and said that he hoped the government would introduce a mitigated version of the same act. Alencherry received a pamphlet distributed by the Bharatiya Janata Party supporting the CAA in January 2020.
In January 2021 Cardinal Alencherry along with Cardinals Baselios Cleemis and Oswald Gracias, were received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and conveyed the grievances of the Christian community.
He announced his resignation as the major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church on 7 December 2023. Pope Francis' letter accepting his resignation, dated 29 November, was made public the same day.

Views

Extending the jurisdiction of the Syro-Malabar Church

In 2011, Alencherry called for the erection of "a territorial jurisdiction covering the whole territory of India" so the Syro-Malabar Church could serve its growing communities in India's largest cities. He called it "one of our appeals to the Holy Father" and presented an argument based on colonialist usurpation of ancient rights. He said:
Pope Francis responded in October 2017 with the creation of the Eparchy of Shamshabad to encompass all the areas of India not otherwise included within the jurisdiction of an existing eparchy. The new eparchy's inauguration in 2018 was greeted as "a historic victory"
and in December 2020 it was made a suffragan of Alencherry's archeparchy.

Christian unity and Petrine ministry

Controversies

Liturgy unification and Latinisation dispute

Historical overview

The Syro-Malabar liturgy was in a heavily Latinised state following the Synod of Diamper in 1599. Archdiocese of Angamaly, the ancient metropolitan see of the Syro-Malabar Church, was degraded as a suffragan diocese of the Padroado Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and its all India jurisdiction was abolished. Although Syriac was retained as the sacred language, the liturgical books were modified to closely resemble the Roman Rite. For over three centuries, the Malabar Catholics were administered by Latin hierarchy. The cultural hegemony was generally supported by the papacy and the propaganda congregation.
From 1934 onwards, popes encouraged a process of returning to the original liturgical traditions which resulted in divergence of opinion among Syro-Malabar Catholics. Following the Second Vatican Council, the Archdiocese of Ernakulam–under the leadership of Joseph Parecattil–and its ecclesiastical province changed as in the universal Church to a rubric in the celebration of the Mass versus populum. The Archdiocese advocated for a unified, Indianised by incorporating the views of both factions. The new pattern of Mass celebration came to be known as the Synodal Form with pre-Anaphoral and post-Anaphoral part in versus populum and the Anaphora celebrated ad orientem. However the formula was rejected by the priests and laities of some dioceses, starting from that of Jacob Thoomkuzhy. Major Archbishop Varkey Vithayathil himself was forced to sign dispensation in his archdiocese, Ernakulam-Angamaly.