Hyderabad New Archbishop Poola Anthony To take charge on Jan 3

Hyderabad : Bishop Poola Anthony, the Catholic Bishop of Kurnool diocese in Andhra Pradesh, will take charge as the Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Hyderabad on Sunday.

In this connection an installation ceremony will take place at St. Mary's High School grounds, Secunderabad on January 3, follows by Pontifical High Mass at 4.30 pm, in which Bishop Anthony will be installed as the Archbishop and the farewell will be given to the outgoing Archbishop.

Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, made this appointment in November 2020. Bishop Poola Anthony 59, would replace Archbishop Thumma Bala, who resigned after reaching the bishops' canonical retirement age of 75 in April last year.

The appointment comes after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop of Hyderabad Thumma Bala. Bishop Poola will now head the Hyderabad Archdiocese and also the ecclesiastical province of Hyderabad. Bishop Poola Anthony joined the minor seminary in Kurnool and then studied at St. Peter's Pontifical Major Seminary, Bengaluru.

He was ordained a priest in 1992 and later appointed as Bishop of Kurnool in February 2008. Since then, he has served the Telugu Catholic Bishops' Conference in various capacities. He also rendered his services for the church in the US. He is proficient in several Indian languages such as Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and also English.