Mar Andrews Thazhath (born 13 December 1951) is an Indian
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
prelate and
Archeparch of
Thissur in the
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
lat, Ecclesia Syrorum-Malabarensium mal, മലബാറിലെ സുറിയാനി സഭ
, native_name_lang=, image = St. Thomas' Cross (Chennai, St. Thomas Mount).jpg
, caption = The Mar Thoma Nasrani Sl ...
.
Life
He is the third and the present
metropolitan archbishop
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a ty ...
of
Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Thrissur
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Trichur-Palayoor, in Thrissur District of Central Kerala, India, with nearly half a million Syro-Malabar Catholics now, used to be the largest Catholic diocese in India when it included the Syro-Mal ...
from 2007. He was nominated as the archbishop succeeding
Mar Jacob Thoomkuzhy
Mar Jacob Thoomkuzhy (born 13 December 1930) is an East Syriac Catholic Archbishop Emeritus, First Bishop of Mananthavady diocese, Second bishop of Thamarassery diocese and the second Metropolitan Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdio ...
on 22 January 2007 and was installed to the office on 18 March 2007 by Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil.
He is the founder of Legion of Apostolic Families (LOAF), a lay pious association of consecrated families founded in 2009.
On 30 July 2022 in addition to his current duties archbishop Thazhath was appointed as an
Apostolic Administrator sede plena
An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admin ...
of the
Major Archeparchy of Ernakulam–Angamaly