KOCHI: Fr Babu Panattuparambil of the Archdiocese of Thrissur has been appointed the Rector of Santa Anastasia Minor Basilica in Rome and the chaplain of the Syro-Malabar faithful living within the territories of the Diocese of Rome. Fr Babu will take charge of the new ministry on September 1 in Rome.
The Minor Basilica was given by the Diocese of Rome to the Syro-Malabar Church to take care of the spiritual and pastoral needs of the Syro-Malabar faithful in Rome. Cardinal Angelo de Donatis, the Pope’s Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, has made the new appointments, on the presentation of the candidate by Major Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry, the head of the Syro-Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Church.
Fr Babu Panattuparambil was born in 1963 at Puthukkad in the Archdiocese of Thrissur as one of the nine children of Vareeth and Thressyamma. After completing his primary studies, Fr Babu began his seminary formation at the Archdiocese’s Minor Seminary in 1981. He was ordained a priest in 1990 by Mar Joseph Kundukulam and was sent to Rome for higher studies after seven years of pastoral work in the Archdiocese.
He served as the Archdiocesan Youth Director, Rector of Mary Matha Major Seminary, Archdiocesan Notary, Promoter of Justice, and a member of the Archdiocesan Advisory Committee. While serving as the Vicar of Aranattukara Parish, he was entrusted with the pastoral responsibility of the Syro-Malabar faithful in Rome.Apart from English, Fr Panattuparambil is fluent in Italian and German.