The Syro-Malabar Church has welcomed the appointment of a coordinator for its members in Australia saying it was long overdue.

“It was a longstanding demand of the Church to have a representative there. We welcome it and are grateful to the Australian bishops,” said Father Paul Thelakat, spokesperson of the Syro-Malabar Church.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference appointed Father Francis Kolencherry as the national coordinator of the Syro-Malabar rite Catholics in the country, according to a statement posted on the conference’s website today.

“The appointment will certainly help the Church cater to the spiritual needs of its members in Australia,” Father Thelakat said adding that migration of members to Australia has increased in recent years.

Archbishop Philip Wilson, president of the Australian bishops’ conference, made the appointment following “a request from the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Rite,” the statement said.

Thousands from this Kerala-based Oriental rite have migrated to different parts of India and major cities around the world. Its first overseas diocese was in Chicago in 2001.

Father Kolencherry said he would focus on educating “children in the Catholic faith” in the Church’s tradition to help ensure “their native language and cultural traditions will survive into the next generation.”

The priest from Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese will act as a link between Syro-Malabar Catholics in Australia, their mother Church in Kerala and the Australian Church.

He was ordained in 1980, worked in Ernakulam and the United States before heading to Australia to become administrator of Canberra’s St. Christopher’s Cathedral.

Jaison Francis, a Syro-Malabar Catholic living in Melbourne told ucanews.com the appointment was “appropriate and timely” as a large number of Catholic students are studying at Australian universities.

An estimated 11,000 Syro-Malabar Catholics now live in Australia.

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