The first diocese of Christians attached to the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the State will be opened at Noojibalthila near Puttur in Dakshina Kannada on Thursday.
Its first Bishop will be Geevarghese Mar Divannasios, who is presently the Bishop of the Sulthan Bathery Diocese in Wayanad, Kerala.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Father George Kalayil, who will be the Vicar-General of the Puttur Diocese, said that there were approximately 800 Christian families attached to the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the State. Of them, 500 families were in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. The proposed Puttur Diocese would have 22 churches attached to it in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Kodagu, Hassan, Chikmagalur, Mandya, Mysore, Shimoga and Chamarajanagar districts.
The new diocese would cater for the spiritual and other needs of Christians who had migrated from Kerala to Karnataka after Independence, he said.
Language
Father Kalayil said that although they had migrated from Kerala, Christians attached to the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church here spoke Kannada and Tulu. “Only some of us can speak Malayalam. But we do not know to read and write Malayalam. We have become part and parcel of local culture,” he said.
