Kakkanad - His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Cyril Vasil SJ, as the Pontifical Delegate for the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly. Archbishop Cyril is the Bishop of the Eparchy of Kosice in the Slovak Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia, and the former Secretary of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches for this crucial role.

The Holy Father has appointed his special Delegate to study the current situation and to propose the ways to end the crisis emerged in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly in connection with the implementation of the Synodal decision on the uniform mode of celebration of the Holy Ourbana, already implemented in other Eparchies of the Church.

The proposal for a Pontifical Delegate for the Archeparchy came up first in the meeting of the Permanent Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church in the Vatican with His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State, and Cardinal designate Archbishop Claudio Gugeroti, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches at the Vatican on May 4, 2023.

Subsequently it was communicated that the Holy Father would consider the proposal with paternal benevolence. In this context, the Synod of the Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church convened urgently in June 2023 held extensive discussion regarding the proposal for the appointment of a Pontifical Delegate for the Archeparchy and having decided favourably in the Synod on the matter, it was communicated to the Apostolic See.

The Pontifical Delegate will arrive on August 4, 2023. He will be accompanied by Rev. Fr. Sunny Kokkaravalayil SJ, who is currently Professor of Canon Law at Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.

Even while the Pontifical delegate functions in the Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly as a special envoy of the Holy Father, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath will continue to administer the Archeparchy in his capacity as the Apostolic Administrator.

Born in 1965 at Kosice in Slovakia, Archbishop Cyril Vasil joined the seminary after the school studies and was ordained a priest in 1987. Having secured doctorate in Canon Law, he served at Pontifical Oriental Institute Rome as professor and later the Rector of the Institute. He was appointed the Secretary of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches in 2009 and was ordained a bishop with the title of Archbishop. After 11 years of his service in the Dicastery, he was appointed the Apostolic Administrator of the Eparchy of Kosice in 2020 and later its second Bishop in 2021.

It was Archbishop Cyril Vasil who represented the Holy Father in the funeral service of late Major Archbishop His Beatitude Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil in 2011. In January 2018, he addressed the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church and participated in the Assumption of Office of the Bishop of Shamshabad.