KOCHI: Syro-Malabar Church Major Archbishop Mar George Alencherry will be consecrated a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI at a ceremony in Vatican on Saturday. Mar Alencherry is among the 22 new cardinals selected by the Pope, and one of the only three from outside the West, the other two being Brazilian Joao Braz de Aviz and John Tong Hon, Bishop of Hong Kong.It was in January this year that Pope Benedict XVI appointed Mar Alencherry as a Cardinal.He is the fourth Malayali and tenth Indian to be elevated as Cardinal. There is a practice of elevating Major Archbishops of the Syro- Malabar Church to the status of Cardinal. Mar Joseph Cardinal Parecattil, Mar Antony Cardinal Padiyara and Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil are Mar Alencherry’s predecessors. On his elevation as Cardinal, Alencherry has become one of the three Indian prelates who have voting right in the Pope’s election. Mar Alencherry, who was serving as the Bishop of Thuckalay, was elected successor of Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil on May 24, 2011 by the synod of the Syro-Malabar Church.Mar Alencherry was the first Major Archbishop to be elected by the Synod after the Syro-Malabar Church was elevated to the status of Major Archiepiscopal Church.
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