The Vatican has appointed a new bishop for India’s Jalandhar dioce-se in Punjab, four years after Bishop Franco Mulakkal stepped down des-pite a court clearing him of charges of raping a nun. The Vatican named Father Jose Sebastian Thekkum-cherikunnel as the new bishop on June 7. The 63-year-old priest serves as the financial administrator of the diocese. The diocese, which has been without a bishop for nearly seven years, has not announced the date of Episcopal ordination. Retired Auxi-liary Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias of Mumbai has been serving as its Apostolic Administrator since Sept. 20, 2018, a day before police arrested Mulackkal based on the complaint made to law enforcement. The bishop elect also comes from Kerala but was ordained a priest in 1991 for the Jalandhar diocese based in Punjab, the Sikh-dominated northwestern Indian state. In 2004, Thekkumcheri-kunnel obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He served the diocese in various roles across parishes and at the diocesan seminary. Additionally, he held the positions of chancellor and judicial vicar of the diocese. In 2022, he was appoin-ted as the financial administrator.
Spanish bishops speak out after leaks of their meeting with Leo XIV
The executive committee of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) meeting in Madrid this week, issued an official statement regarding the leaks
