KOCHI:Fr Jose Kalluveli of Palakkad diocese has been appointed the exarch of the Exarchy of Mississauga in Toranto in Canada, the first of its kind for the Syro Malabar Church outside India. He will also be the titular see of Tabalta.The announcement in this regard was made in Vatican, Syro Malabar headquarters at Kakkanad, Kochi, and in Canada simultaneously. Syro Malabar Church head Mar George Cardinal Alencherry read out the order at Church headquarters at Kakkanad while the same was done in Canada by Apostolic Visitation Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiyath.
Fr Jose Kalluveli was born on November 15, 1955, at Thottuva near Pala. On completion of his studies at St Mary’s minor Seminary and St Thomas Apostolic Seminary, Vadavathoor, he was ordained priest for the Diocese of Palakkad on December 18, 1984. He holds a doctoral degree in catechesis from Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. For the last two years, he has been doing pastoral ministry of Syro Malabar community in Toranto. According to official statistics there are 3500 Syro Malabar Christians in Canada.Exarchy is an ecclesiastical administrative set up which is not yet elevated as an eparchy (diocese), but very similar to it.
It can be raised to the status of an eparchy when the number of faithful, parishes and other structures are sufficiently adequate for such a status. Many Syro-Malabar eparchies outside Kerala in India were established as exarchies.