Pope Francis on November 19 transferred Bishop Anthony Poola of Kurnool to Hyderabad as its archbishop.
The Pope also accepted the resignation of Archbishop Thumma Bala of Hyderabad, who reached the bishops’ canonical retirement age of 75 in April 2019. Archbishop Bala headed the archdiocese for 9 years since 2011.
Bishop Poola was born on November 15, 1961, at Chindhukur, Andhra Pradesh. He joined the minor seminary in Kurnool and studied at St Peter’s Pontifical Major Semi-nary, Bangalore. He was ordained a priest on February 20, 1992. At the age of 46 he was appointed as the Bishop of Kurnool on February 8, 2008,’
He has served as chairman for Youth Commission Telugu Region, Scheduled Castes/Backward Classes Commission and Andhra Pradesh Social Service Society. He also served the Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Council as its secretary general and treasurer.
He was also the chairman of the Sikh Village Campus, secretariat for TCBC Priests Community.
He has completed 28 years as a priest and 12 years as a bishop, says a press release from Father Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India.