Alencherry, George (1945-…), was appointed a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinals are high-ranking clergymen in the church. They advise the pope and elect the pope’s successor after he dies or resigns. Since 2011, Alencherry has been the leader of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in India. Eastern Catholic Churches accept the same doctrine and celebrate the same sacraments as the Roman Catholic Church does. However, they differ in a number of ways from the Catholic Church in the West. For example, unlike the Catholic Church in the West, Eastern Catholic Churches allow married men to become priests. See Eastern Catholic Churches .
Alencherry was born Geevarghese Alencherry on April 19, 1945, in Thuruthy, Kerala state, in southwestern India. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Berchmans College in Changanacheri (also spelled Changanacherry), Kerala, in 1965. He became a priest in 1972. Alencherry later obtained a master of theology degree from the Pontifical Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Aluva, Kerala. In 1986, Alencherry received a doctorate in Biblical theology after studying at the Catholic University of Paris and the Paris Sorbonne University.
From the late 1970’s to the late 1990’s, Alencherry held a number of teaching and administrative positions. For example, he taught for a number of years at St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary in Kottayam, Kerala. In that period, he also served as deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council and as director of the Pastoral Orientation Centre in Cochin, Kerala. From 1994 to 1996, he also served as protosyncellus for the archdiocese of Changanacheri. A protosyncellus is a type of deputy bishop. An archdiocese is a church district.
Alencherry was appointed the first bishop of the diocese of Thuckalay, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, in 1996, when the diocese was established. He was ordained a bishop in 1997. In May 2011, Alencherry was elected major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church and archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly, an archdiocese in Cochin, Kerala. He was the first head of the Syro-Malabar Church to be elected by its bishops’ synod (assembly). Previously, the pope had appointed major archbishops.
