Cardinal-Designate Mar George Alencherry

Mar George Alencherry the current Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly - head of the Eastern Catholic Syro-Malabar Church will be raised as Cardinal. It was announced that he would be among the list of prelates to be raised to the cardinalate by Pope Benedict XVI in a consistory scheduled for Saturday, February 18, 2012. 
Cardinal-Designate Mar George Alencherry the current Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly - head of the Eastern Catholic Syro-Malabar Church Alencherry was born in Thuruthy, Changanacherry and was ordained as priest on 19th November 1972. He studied at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Seminary of St Joseph in Alwaye and earned a doctorate at the Institut Catholique de Paris, where he specialised in catechesis. He has served as the Director Pastoral Orientation Centre, Cochin, inter-ritual, which depends of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Conference (KCBC). He served as a professor of Pastoral Counselling and Systematic Theology at the Faculty of "Paurastya Vidyapitham, Pontifical Oriental Institute of Religious Studies of Vadavathoor, Kottayam, and at the Pontifical Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Alwaye. He was vicar general of the archeparchy from 11 November 1996 until he was appointed first eparch of Thuckalay and was ordained on 2 February 1997.On 24 May 2011 he was elected Major Archbishop. Pope Benedict XVI confirmed the election on 25 May 2011.  He is the first head of the Syro-Malabar Church to be elected by its synod.