Pope Francis named Cardinal George Koovakad Friday as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
The Jan. 24 announcement marks a milestone for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the pope whose heartland is the southern Indian state of Kerala.
It is also a moment of recognition for Indian Catholicism more broadly — and arguably a sign of its rising influence within the global Church.
Who is Cardinal Koovakad? Why was he named head of the Vatican’s interfaith office? And what does that mean for Syro-Malabar Catholics?
Who is Cardinal Koovakad?
Cardinal Koovakad is now undoubtedly the most senior Indian Catholic at the Vatican — and at the relatively young age of 51.
His new appointment is significant because India is a rising economic and geopolitical power that is thought to have overtaken China as the world’s most populous country.
India’s more than 20 million Catholics generally belong to three of the 24 sui iuris Churches that comprise the Catholic Church. They are members of the Syro-Malankara Church, Syro-Malabar Church, or the Latin Church, which is by far the largest Church in the Catholic communion.
In India, there are roughly half a million Syro-Malankara Catholics, 4 million Syro-Malabar Catholics, and, by inference, more than 15 million Latin Catholics.
The first Indian to head a major Vatican department appears to have been Cardinal Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches from 1985 to 1991. Lourdusamy was born in Kallieri, Kerala, but he was ordained a priest of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore.
Later, Cardinal Ivan Dias served as prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2006 to 2011. He was born in Mumbai and ordained a priest of the Latin Rite Bombay archdiocese.
Cardinal Koovakad was born in Chethipuzha, Kerala, and incardinated in the Syro-Malabar Archeparchy of Changanacherry. He therefore seems to be the first Syro-Malabar Catholic to be appointed prefect of a Vatican dicastery.
Why was he given the new role?
The Holy See press office announced Koovakad’s appointment in its usual terse fashion, offering no reason why the pope had asked the Indian cardinal to oversee the Vatican’s interfaith outreach.
Koovakad has worked at the Vatican’s powerful Secretariat of State since 2020, organizing papal journeys, so his credentials for the role are not entirely obvious.
In an interview with Vatican News, Koovakad seemed to suggest his Indian background prepared him for the new post.
He noted that he “was born and raised in a multicultural and multi-religious society where all religions are respected and harmony is preserved.”
Roughly 80% of India’s estimated 1.4 billion population is Hindu. The largest minority religion is Islam, the faith of around 14% of Indians. Christians account for around 2%.
Indian Christians must navigate an extremely complex cultural and religious landscape that is arguably much less harmonious than the cardinal suggests. Indian Catholics growing up in this environment may develop qualities that are useful in interreligious dialogue. Koovakad identified them as an “attitude of openness, sympathy, and closeness to other traditions.”
The cardinal’s Indian experience could shape his approach to his new job. Under Pope Francis, the interreligious dialogue dicastery has seemed to prioritize relations with the Islamic world and projects in the Middle East. Koovakad may expand the dicastery’s focus further east, seeking to deepen dialogue with Hindus and Buddhists.
While he is known for his cheerful exterior, Koovakad may bring a quietly steely character to the role. Pope Francis referred to him as the “smiling dictator” during a papal trip in 2021 — a joke, no doubt, but likely also a tribute to his management skills.
