Francis on January 13 appointed bishops for five dioceses and an auxiliary for one in four states of India.
Four of the bishops-elect are natives of Tamil Nadu that celebrated Pongal, its harvest festival, on the day. The announcement came a day ahead of the feast of Saint Devasahayam Pillai, the first native saint of Tamil Nadu.
According to a press statement from the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (Latin Rite), the Pope has also accepted the resignations of Bishops Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and Antonisamy Francis of Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu, southern India.
The new bishop for Jabalpur is Father Valan Arasu of the same dio-cese, currently serving as the principal of Saint Aloysius College in the city, the legal headquarters of Madhya Pradesh.
In Kumbakonam, the Pope elevated its vicar general Father Jeevanandam Amalanathan as its new bishop.
Another diocese in Tamil Nadu, Kuzhithurai, got Father Albert George Alexander Anastas, a priest of Kottar, as its new bishop.