Knanaya Region

Knanaya Region is a subdivision of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago. This region was officially established by His Excellency Mar Jacob Angadiath, the bishop of the diocese on 30 April 2006. On that day, the bishop appointed Rev. Fr. Abraham Mutholath, the then Vicar General for Knanaya Community as the first director of the Knanaya Region. The purpose of this region is to coordinate all the pastoral activities of the diocese under the leadership of Knanaya Region director who is also one of the Vicar Generals of the diocese.
According to the decree of the Bishop, all Knanaya Catholic parishes, Knanaya missions, and all the Knanaya Catholic faithful who live in the USA outside the proper territory of an established Knanaya Catholic parish or mission will come under this region. This is a personal jurisdiction style followed in the Syro-Malabar Church in India where the Archbishop of Kottayam has personal jurisdiction over all the Knanaya Catholics within the juridical boundary of the Syro-Malabar Church.
The Knanaya Catholic Region has five forane parishes, 14 parishes, eight missions, and four convents.
History.
Knanaya Catholics from the Archdiocese of Kottayam, Kerala began to migrate to the United States in the 1950s. They came mainly for education and later for job opportunities. However, they eventually settled in this country and brought their family also to the United States. When they came to this foreign land, they missed their Syro-Malabar Malayalam Qurbana and wanted to arrange it for prayer followed by a social gathering. They arranged such Holy Mass whenever they could get a Syro-Malabar priest who came either for studies or for work in American parishes.
The Knanaya Catholics in Chicago got organized and appealed to the Bishop of Kottayam Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry on 17 January 1981, to send a priest to meet their pastoral needs in the Syro-Malabar Rite. Since Bishop of Kottayam has no ecclesiastical jurisdiction outside the proper territory of the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala, he wrote a letter to His Eminence Cardinal John Cody, the Archbishop of Chicago on 18 March 1981, seeking his help to establish a special ministry for Knanaya Catholics in Chicago. Because of some confusion created by some other people, the cardinal postponed his decision.
When Most Rev. Joseph Bernardin became the new Archbishop of Chicago, Bishop Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry wrote to him asking to reconsider the former request to start a special ministry for Knanaya Catholics in Chicago. At the direction of the Archbishop of Chicago, his chancellor convened a meeting of the Knanaya Associations on 27 September 1983, and decided to start the proposed ministry. Bishop Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry sent Rev. Fr. Jacob Chollampel from the diocese of Kottayam in October 1983 to serve the newly constituted ministry.
Following the example of Knanaya Catholics in Chicago, the Knanaya Catholic migrants in the other cities of the United States also applied to their local Latin bishops to start Knanaya Catholic missions for them. Bishop Kunnacherry also recommended for the same and sent priests from the Diocese of Kottayam to serve the Knanaya Catholic Missions established by the Latin bishops. Thus the Latin Catholic dioceses in the United States established nine Knanaya Catholic missions before the establishment of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago in 2001. They are Chicago (1983), Brooklyn, NY (1993), Westchester and Bronx, NY (1993), Houston (1994), Dallas (1996), Newark, New Jersey (1996), Rockland, NY (1996), Philadelphia (1999), and San Jose (2000).
When Pope John Paul II established the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Chicago in 2001, all the Knanaya Catholic faithful in the United States who had become part of the local Latin parishes and the nine Knanaya Catholic Missions under the Latin bishops came under the pastoral jurisdiction of this diocese. Considering the desire of the community and to help him with the pastoral administration of the Knanaya Catholic faithful in the diocese, Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath appointed Rev. Fr. Abraham Mutholath on 3 October 2001 as one of the two Vicar Generals (Syncellus) of the diocese with special charge of the Knanaya Catholics. Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath officially accepted all the Knanaya Catholic missions in the United States on 29 October 2003 as part of his diocese and asked the mission directors to continue their service in their respective missions.
First Vicar General Rev. Fr. Abraham Mutholath motivated the Knanaya Catholic faithful in the different parts of the United States to start Knanaya Missions wherever possible and to buy churches to grow as parishes. The first church was brought in the City of Maywood in Chicago in 2006. Later more churches and missions were added.
Since the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago is spread all over the United States, Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath established seven regions in his diocese on 28 April 2006. One of these regions is for all Knanaya Catholics in the diocese. According to the decree issued by the bishop, "The formal Knanaya Catholic missions and the faithful of the Knanaya community living in other places where no formal missions are established will make one region". Vicar General Rev. Fr. Abraham Mutholath is appointed as the director of this region. The official declaration of this region was held at OLV Church Chicago on 30 April 2006, by Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath.
Bishop Mar Jacob Angadiath appointed Rev. Fr. Thomas Mulavanal as the Vicar General and director of the Knanaya Catholic Region on 8 February 2014.
Knanaya forane parishes in the United States.
His Excellency Mar Jacob Angadiath has raised the following parishes of the Knanaya Region of the diocese into forane status on 28 February 2015.
Chicago Knanaya Forane.
The parishes and missions that come under Chicago Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
Houston Knanaya Forane.
The parishes and missions that come under Houston Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
Tampa Knanaya Forane.
The parishes and missions that come under Tampa Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
New York Knanaya Forane.
The parishes and missions that come under New York Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
San Jose Knanaya Forane.
The parishes and missions that come under San Jose Knanaya Catholic Forane are the following:
See Also.
St. Thomas Diocese of Chicago
Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam
Sacred Heart Knanaya Catholic Church, Chicago
St. Mary's Knanaya Catholic Church, Chicago
St. Pius X Knanaya Catholic Parish, Los Angeles