FORMER Brisbane-based priest Fr John Panamthottathil will be ordained bishop of the Syro-Malabar eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle in Melbourne tomorrow.
The episcopal ordination and installation ceremony will begin with a liturgical procession at 4:45 pm at Our Lady Guardian of Plants Chaldean Catholic Church in Campbellfield in Melbourne’s north.
The ceremony will be live-streamed on Shalom TV and the Eparchy’s social media networks for those unable to attend in person.
When he was appointed by Pope Francis in January, he said he took up the appointment with a “deep desire to serve the People of God”.
Fr Panamthottathil ministered in Australia for five years, first at St Stephen’s Cathedral and then at St Bernadine’s Regent Park parish before becoming parish priest in Aspley.
His religious order, the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, have priests who serve across Brisbane archdiocese and Australia.
Fr Panamthottathil was born in Kerala on May 31, 1966.
After completing his schooling, he joined the St Thomas Kozhikode Province of the Congregation of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate.
He made his first profession in 1986 and solemn profession in 1994, and was ordained priest on December 26, 1997.
He was elected twice as the Provincial Superior of the CMI Kozhikode Province.
The Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St Thomas the Apostle, Melbourne was established in December 2013 – the second such eparchy outside India.
