William to be consecrated as 7th Bishop of Mysuru today

Will replace Vazhapilly; ordination at St Philomena's Church

K A William, secretary of the Mysore Diocesan Educational Society (MDES), will be ordained as the seventh Bishop of Mysuru on Monday at the historical St Philomena’s Church. It is sheer coincidence that William will be consecrated on his 52nd birthday.

Rector Leslie Moras told reporters here on Saturday that Pope Francis has appointed William as Bishop on January 25 in Vatican, during the feast of conversion of St Paul, following the resignation of Bishop Thomas Antony Vazhapilly on attaining 75 years of age.

The appointment was actually delayed by two years as Vazhapilly, born on April 11, 1940, completed 75 years of age and resigned in April 2015 but no one was designated as the Bishop.

“While Vazhapilly, who will continue as Bishop Emeritus, will be the principal consecrator for the episcopal ordination and installation of William as Bishop, Archbishop Bernard Moras from Bengaluru and Bishop T Anthony Swamy from Chikkamagaluru will be co-consecrators. The religious programme will begin at 4.30 pm and the reception and felicitation will start at 6.30 pm,” he said.

“Besides 25 bishops of Karnataka and neighbouring dioceses, 500 priests, nuns and around 10,000 people of the diocese, ministers Dr H C Mahadevappa, Tanveer Sait, K J George and former Union minister Oscar Fernandes are expected to take part in the event. The Mysuru diocese comprises four districts of Mysuru, Mandya, Kodagu and Chamarajanagar. It has 80 parishes, 131 diocesan priests, 23 men religious congregations, 55 women congregations and over six deaneries,” Moras said.

“The MDES runs 136 institutions from kindergarten to higher education and over 100 out of them are in rural areas. A research centre would be shortly launched at St Philomena’s College. Around 35,000 students are studying in the institutions of the MDES, while there are 2,000 staffers,” he said.

Bishop-elect William said that he was proud of Mysuru being an old diocese so his responsibilities are more. “I will serve the diocese under the guidance of senior pontiffs,” he said. Priest Vijay Kumar and Mari Joseph were also present.