‘I Have Taken It as a Task Given by God,’ Says Indian Missionary Bishop Appointed to Vatican Catechesis Council

Bishop George Pallipparambil, SDB, of Miao in northeastern India, has described his appointment by Pope Leo XIV to a Vatican advisory body on catechesis as an unexpected call to serve the wider Church.

“I have taken it as a task given by God, neither too happy about it nor sorry about it, but willing to do the will of God,” Bishop Pallipparambil told Radio Veritas Asia.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the Salesian bishop for a five-year term to the International Council for Catechesis (Co.In.Cat.), an advisory body of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization.

The appointment was formally communicated to Bishop Pallipparambil in a letter dated July 30 from Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization. According to the letter, the Vatican Secretariat of State informed the Dicastery on July 5 that Pope Leo had approved the appointment following a request from the Dicastery.

Bishop Pallipparambil said the letter reached him on August 3 and came as “a real surprise.”

“After having been in the Catechetical Commission of the CCBI and in the Evangelization Section of the FABC, I was getting ready to withdraw from all this slowly and concentrate for the coming two years on the work of Miao,” he said.

The appointment, he added, came at a time when he had planned to focus more fully on his ministry in Miao, a remote diocese in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India.

The bishop said he does not see the appointment as a recognition of his personal expertise or knowledge.

“It is not because of my expertise or my knowledge, but it is the faith that the Lord has given as a commission to proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation and equip the whole creation to receive Him when He comes,” he said.

He sees the new responsibility within the Church’s broader preparation for the future of evangelization and catechesis.

“As the world is preparing itself, particularly the Church is preparing itself for the third millennium which we begin in 2033, the commission given by Jesus is to be fulfilled,” he said.

“I am happy to be able to contribute my share and begin to prepare the people and the Church,” he added. “May God bless the whole Church.”

The International Council for Catechesis serves as a consultative body to the Section for Fundamental Questions Regarding Evangelization in the World within the Dicastery for Evangelization. It brings together pastoral, theological and missionary experience to assist the Vatican in reflecting on catechetical priorities and initiatives.

Archbishop Fisichella expressed confidence that Bishop Pallipparambil’s pastoral and missionary experience would contribute to the Council’s work, particularly in addressing challenges facing catechesis in different cultural and social contexts.

A Salesian of Don Bosco, Bishop Pallipparambil has served the Diocese of Miao among indigenous communities spread across the mountainous and remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh, near India’s international borders with Myanmar and China.

His ministry has combined evangelization with education, health care, social development and pastoral accompaniment. His experience of nurturing Christian communities in a culturally diverse and geographically challenging environment offers a perspective shaped by the realities of mission on the margins.

Before his appointment to the Vatican council, he served on the Catechetical Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CCBI) and was the former Chairman of the Office of Evangelization of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC).

His new role will bring the experience of the Church in one of India’s most remote missionary regions into the Vatican’s wider reflection on how the faith is communicated and nurtured in an increasingly diverse and changing world.

For Bishop Pallipparambil, however, the appointment ultimately remains a matter of responding faithfully to a call.

“I have taken it as a task given by God,” he said, “and I am willing to do the will of God.”