MADURAI, India (UCAN) -- The newly installed archbishop of Madurai, India, prays he will be accepted in his archdiocese, where some priests earlier opposed his appointment.

"I pray and hope that I will be accepted by the people, Religious and the clergy of the archdiocese," Archbishop Peter Fernando told UCA News after his installation April 24 in Madurai, 2,150 kilometers south of New Delhi.

Archbishop Fernando, 64, was bishop of Tuticorin until Pope John Paul II appointed him to Madurai in March, when the pope accepted the resignation of Archbishop Marianus Arokiasamy, who turned 75 last August. Canon law requires bishops to request retirement at that age. Madurai and Tuticorin are both in Tamil Nadu state.

Some 70 of the 132 archdiocesan and Religious priests in Madurai signed letters to the Vatican saying they would not accept the new archbishop and wanted Auxiliary Bishop Antony Pappusamy to head the archdiocese.

The priests said Bishop Pappusamy, ordained auxiliary bishop of Madurai in 1999, knows the area, its people and their problems, and could serve them better than a person from a different region.

Archbishop Fernando is a native of Tuticorin, a town on the Bay of Bengal, 125 kilometers south of Madurai. Bishop Pappusamy is from Tiruchirapalli in interior Tamil Nadu, about 115 kilometers northeast of Madurai.

The new archbishop expressed the hope he would be accepted by all. "I am not a perfect bishop, and it is in my weakness I find my strength," he said.

There was no show of opposition at the installation, which some 10,000 people attended on open ground despite a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius.

When Archbishop Arokiasamy appealed for people to give their unstinted support to his successor, they cried, "We will. We will."

According to A. Antonyraj, who heads an association of former Catholic priests, most priests wanted a person who knew well the problems of the people and clergy in the region.

He told UCA News that the priests of the archdiocese had expected their auxiliary bishop to succeed Archbishop Arokiasamy. They wrote to the Vatican that the position was "maneuvered" with several "influencing initiatives."

Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Pius Dorairaj of Madras-Mylapore, who attended the ceremony along with most bishops in the state, said it was a "misconception" to say the appointment could be "maneuvered."

Several Church people see the priests' dissension as related to caste. The new archbishop belongs to the Parava community, a minority among the state's 3.2 million Catholics. Socially and educationally advanced castes such as the Vellala, Udayar and Vanniyar dominate the Church hierarchy in Tamil Nadu.

Dalit (low caste) people form an estimated 52 percent of some 160,000 Catholics in Madurai archdiocese.

Archbishop Arokiasamy admitted the prevalence of the caste system in the Church during his speech but said it is a social problem and religions should not be blamed for it.

Archbishop Arul Das James of Madras-Mylapore, president of the Tamil Nadu Bishops' Council, introduced Archbishop Fernando to the audience. He said the new archbishop's record proves he is "deeply committed" and has concern for the oppressed.

END