He is the first Cardinal of the Syro-Malankara rite of the Catholic
Church. At 53, he is among the youngest Cardinals in the Catholic
Church.
Mar Cleemis is currently attending the golden jubilee proceedings of the
Vatican Second Council at Rome and the investiture will be held on
November 24, along with five others who were named Cardinals by the
Vatican.
Among the five is Patriarch of the Lebanon-based Maronite
Catholic Church Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, who had visited Kerala a month
ago.
Metropolitan Archbishop of Thiruvalla Thomas Mar Coorilos made the
announcement at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Pattom, at 3.30 p.m.,
synchronising with the announcement made in the Vatican. Prayer
sessions, tolling of bells, and bursting of firecrackers marked the
function at the church.
“This is a great honour to the Malankara Church everywhere,” said Samuel
Mar Irenios, Auxiliary Bishop of Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala is now home
to two Cardinals, with Mar George Alencherry of the Syro-Malabar Church
being appointed as Cardinal earlier this year.
Born in Pathanthitta in
1959, Mar Cleemis’s record spans from the pre-degree he completed at St.
Berchman’s College, Changanassery, to the doctorate he obtained at St.
Thomas Pontifical University in Rome (in Ecumenism) in 1997.
He was a
priest at the diocese of Bathery and has also served as patron of the
Indian Christian Forum and the St. Thomas Ecumenical Federation of India
in the U.S. Mar Cleemis was consecrated as Bishop of Thiruvalla in 2003
and was elevated as Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Church in
2007.