The first Major Archbishop elected by the Synod

George Alencherry was born in 1945. He has two brothers who are priests and a sister who is a nun. He studied in St Joseph’s Pontifical Seminary of Alwaye and matured in the Archdiocese of Changanacherry, where he held various positions of responsibility before and after periods of higher learning spent in France (a doctorate in Catechetics at the Institut Catholique in Paris and a doctorate in Biblical Theology at the Sorbonne). In 1996 he was appointed the first bishop of Thuckalay, a diocese born from the subdivision of the Changanacherry archdiocese. Forty-six bishops of the Synod elected him Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church on 24 May 2011, guaranteeing him the necessary majority of two-thirds on the second ballot. Two days later, Benedict XVI confirmed the election.
The episcopal motto of Mar George Alencherry is: ‘Service in a dialogue of truth and love’.