Christianity in India received a major boost on Wednesday with Pope Benedict XVI naming Major Archbishop-Catholicos Baselios Mar Cleemis, who heads the relatively-young Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, as Cardinal.
Cleemis is the only Indian among the six senior prelates named cardinals in the latest expansion of the College of Cardinals which elects the Pope.
With Cleemis’s appointment, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church has got its first ‘Prince of the Church’- as cardinals are known - and their number in Kerala has risen to two.
Cleemis, 53, is the youngest cardinal, or at least among the youngest, in the world as per available details, Church representatives here said.
The declaration was made simultaneously at the Vatican and Thiruvananthapuram, the headquarters of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, at Indian time 3.30 pm.
The formal ordination will be held on November 24 in Rome, church representatives said. The Cardinal-designate will henceforth be known as ‘Baselios Cardinal Cleemis,’ they said.
Up till now, Kerala has had only one cardinal - in the heads of the Syro-Malabar Church, the current post being held by Mar George Alancherry. Although he is the first Cardinal from the Syro-Malankara Catholic rite, Cleemis is only the fifth Malayali to hold this post.