Pope Francis appointed the youngest bishop of India, the most populous country in the world, which for the first time in 2023 surpassed China, the nation with the most inhabitants for decades, in number of inhabitants.
According to the latest figures from the World Population Review, India currently has more than 1,441 million inhabitants, followed by China with 1,425 million. The United States, in a distant third place, has more than 341 million.
Receive the main news from ACI Prensa by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channels today:
Bishop Arokia Raj Satis Kumar has been appointed by the Holy Father as the new Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Bangalore. Born on September 5, 1977, the bishop-elect is 46 years old, making him the youngest prelate in India.
Until before this appointment, and according to Catholic Hierarchythe youngest prelate of India was Bishop Anthony Prince Panengaden, Bishop of Adilabad, who is 48 years old.
According to Press Office from the Vatican, Bishop Arokia Raj Satis Kumar studied Philosophy and Theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Diocese of Mangalore, and was ordained a priest on May 2, 2007 for the Archdiocese of Bangalore.
He obtained the Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute in Bangalore (2010-2012) and the Doctorate from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.
He has held the following positions: Vice-parish priest of the San José parish, the San Francisco Javier Cathedral and the Cristo Rey parish of Malleswaram (2007-2010); he was also parish priest of Christ the King in Malleswaram (2012-2014).
Among other responsibilities, he has been rector of the Bhavan Bhakti Minor Seminary and professor of Canon Law at St. Peter’s Pontifical Institute in Bangalore.
On Saturday, July 13, Pope Francis also appointed Bishop Joseph Soosainathan, 60, as Auxiliary Bishop of Bengaluru.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.