Vatican ‘foreign minister,’ in India, lauds pioneer Syro-Malankara prelate
July 16, 2025
The Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations lauded the example of Venerable Geevarghese Ivanios (1882-1953), a former Malankara Orthodox Syrian bishop whose reception into the Catholic Church in 1930 led to the formation of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.
Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher made his remarks at the beginning of a trip to India, now the world’s most populous nation.
“Venerable Archbishop Mar Ivanios encouraged his brethren to cultivate a personal relationship with Christ, to seek holiness in everyday life, and to serve others selflessly,” Archbishop Gallagher preached at a Mass on July 15, the anniversary of Venerable Ivanios’s death.
Hailing Venerable Ivanios as an “apostle of unity,” Archbishop Gallagher said that “true unity cannot be imposed by force, but must be drawn from the heart of the Gospel, which calls us to be one as the Father and the Son are one.”
The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, has 445,000 members and 12 eparchies (dioceses): 11 in India and one in the United States.
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