Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tura (Fides Service) - More than 500,0000 people gathered for the ordination of coadjutor Bishop Andrew Marak for Tura diocese in the state of Meghalaya, tormented region of north east India. At the ordination the Bishop of Tura George Mamalassery was assisted by Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong, a Salesian, and Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana, papal Nuncio in India. The presence of members of the local Baptist community and other Christian denominations made the event ecumenical.
The event was especially important for some of the local Catholics, because new Bishop is a member of the Garo ethnic minority group, one of at least 300 different ethnic groups in north east India. Tura diocese has a population of 720,000 including 192,000 Catholics and of these about 20,000 are Garo. It has 37 parishes looked after by 42 diocesan priests, including 15 of Garo ethnic origin.
During the Mass grateful mention was made of the missionaries who brought the faith to this part of India, and in particular to the Garo communities whose development benefited enormously thanks to the presence of the missionaries. The first Italian Salesian missionaries, Father Archimede Pianazzi and Father Luigi Rocca Father came in the 1930s.
Bishop Marak was educated at Don Bosco School in Damra, and then went to the Philippines to study theology. He was parish priest in one of the parishes in Tura and also editor of a Catholic magazine Seng’ba, in Garo. Recently he was appointed Vicar General of the diocese of Tura. For his episcopal motto he chose the Gospel phrase: “The Kingdom of God is at hand”.
His ordination is not the only fruit of the Church’s traditional loving care for neglected ethnic minorities, Archbishop Telesphore Toppo, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India is also a member of a minority tribal group the Adivasi.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 20/10/2004 righe 28 parole 287)
