Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, on Saturday announced the constitution of a new diocese of the church in Mississauga, Canada.
He told a press conference that Pope Francis had raised Mississauga, which was till now an Apostolic Exarchate, to the status of a diocese. The official announcements in this regard were made in Rome and Kochi on Saturday evening. Jose Kalluvelil, hailing from the diocese of Palakkad, would be the bishop of the new diocese, said the Cardinal.
Meanwhile, in a Christmas message, the Cardinal said that if the celebrations associated with the festival did not have spiritual depth, it would be against the spirit of the holy occasion. He said that of late Christmas celebrations were turning commercial and tended to be an occasion for splurging.
Christ’s birth in a manger signified simplicity and society needed to imbibe this spirit even as the world faced pressures from climate and ecological changes, the Cardinal said.