BROOKLYN (NY)
National Catholic Reporter
November 20, 2018
by Peter Feuerherd
When Bishop George Pallipparambil was named in 2005 to lead the newly formed Diocese of Miao, India, he knew he was to lead a church of the laity. There was no other alternative.
As a Salesian priest, he had ministered in the region since a church was first formed there in 1979 with the baptisms of 900 people. It now boasts some 90,000 Catholics, led by 156 lay catechist leaders, with 96 diocesan and religious priests, as well as 165 religious sisters.
“It was planted, watered and nourished by laypeople and it continues,” Pallipparambil said Oct. 16 in an interview conducted at the offices of the U.S. chapter of Aid to the Church in Need, a group that supports impoverished dioceses such as Miao. Pallipparambil was in the U.S. on a tour seeking support.
As the bishop of a small, impoverished diocese, Pallipparambil is on the frontlines of a post-Vatican II church which seeks out the gifts of laity. At the same time, as a church leader in sometimes hostile territory, Pallipparambil is convinced that the church’s enemies are responsible for sensational national headlines implicating a fellow bishop.
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