• Bp Ambrose Puthenveetil, Kottappuram

When is your episcopal ordination?
It is fixed for the 20th of January 2024. Saturday in the evening at Saint Thomas Cathedral of the diocese.

What is the motto you wish to take as bishop, and why this?
I am inspired to take a motto from the call of prophet Isaiah, the Lord is calling me, “to love and console my people…” Is. 40, 1.

What will be your pastoral priority as the bishop of Kottappuram diocese?
In line with my predecessor I see education as the pastoral priority of the diocese of Kottappuram and comprising southern and partly the eastern tip of the district of Trichur, including the muziris, ancient trading and cultural centre of Kodungalloor.

What according to you is the urgent need of the diocesan people of Kottappuram?
According to me, the urgent need of Kottappuram region is unemployment and poverty. This need is closely related to the pastoral priority of Education that aims at an integral growth of the community and empowering of family life.

You have to lead a diocese of 61 parishes, 132 diocesan priests, 92 religious priests, 253 religious and nuns; what style of leadership do you wish to follow? Pope Francis is speaking of Synodality, what does it mean to you?
In this realistic situation, I wish to stay close to the diocesan pastoral community and walk with them hand in hand, where I wish to embrace all caste and creed. In short, may I say the concept of Pope Francis to live “an all inclusive culture…” to become all things to all men. And to hold fast to a way of being merciful to all, in particular the poor and the marginalised.

You had your training in Austria and Rome, how did the Western education help to understand your life and your faith?
Do not want to hold a way of statutes and grandeur, but equality and fraternity – that of being out going to all. That is becoming one with all. I am not going to look for material benefits and growth. I trust in the divine providence, a life of prayer and of interiority and spiritual growth.

In Kerala the catholic church is inter-ritual, a phenomenon rather specific for us, how do you understand it and live by these differences?
I trust in the principle of unity in diversities, that is the essential unity in Christ as of a follower of Jesus. I love to hold together in this angle the big Christian community of Kerala that is inter-ritual. In this context also accept the vision of Vatican II Council, that of ecumenism and Ad Gentes – the approach to other religions.

Do you think that identity consciousness is increasing in a globalised world of our giving way to communal feeling with fundamentalist overtones?
I consider religious fundamentalism as the non-acceptance of the other in a pluralistic and globalized situation of societies and countries today. The thought of projecting oneself is dangerous. Even in families we see the bounce and consequent restlessness of this egoistic culture. So we need to promote a spirituality of acceptance and appreciation of the other, again I repeat the thought of the Pope, an all inclusive culture.

India has been a land of caste divisions and out-castes, has the Code of Manu has become more important than the Constitution of India? How to defend fraternity in this country?
A life style of living in harmony with all cultures and even the minorities is the need of the day in our planet. Tolerance, fraternity and acceptance of one other is the underlying principle of democracy. As Christians we have to hold fast also to the gospel principles of love and forgiving love. Though a minority in the country, the Christian ministries of education, service to the sick, the poor and the marginalized have made an impact in our land. So have to adapt to live with the vast majority non-Christian country in Christ-way. If we stand together we can live or we perish!

You have your doctorate in missiology, what does mission mean to you? How is mission work possible in land life India? Does Christ remain a foreigner?
A missiology with a message that attracts, the church that attracts, and the teaching that attracts – is the synthesis of my study. In my humble view, it is an “attractive community” of an inclusive church, a church that offers an “attractive teaching” that is attentive to the culture and context of our country. I also believe in our land a possible life of inculturation and indigenous adaptations and being an Indian in our way of living and praying.
Christians have the duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, we should appear as people who wish to share our joy, and we point to a horizon of eternal beauty and who invite all to a delicious banquet of the Lord. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but ‘by attraction’ (§EG15).

• Interviewed by
  Fr.William Nellikal