Mar Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil Expired

On April 1, 2011, Mar Vithayathil expired due to prolonged heart problems at Lisie Hospital in Ernakulam.

Mar Varkey Vithayathil, C.S.S.R (b. 29 May 1927, North Paravur, Ernakulam District, Kerala, India- April 1,2011) is an Indian cardinal of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, serving as Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly and head of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. He is also a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Early life and ordination
Born of Thresiamma and Justice Joseph Vithayathil in Parur, India, he became a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), a religious order in the Roman Catholic Church, founded by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri in 1732. He was ordained as a priest in 1954. He holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome on "The Origin and Progress of the Syro-Malabar Hierarchy". He taught for 25 years at the Redemptorist seminary in Bangalore. In 1972 he took his Master's Degree in Philosophy from Karnataka University. He also taught different subjects in several other seminaries in Bangalore.

Provincial Superior
From 1978 to 1984 he was Provincial Superior of the Redemptorist provinces in India and Sri Lanka, from 1984 to 1985 he was President of the India Conference of Religious, and from 1990 to 1996 he was appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of the Asirvanam Benedictine Monastery in Bangalore by Pope John Paul II.

Bishop
He was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly on 11 November 1996 and was ordained Bishop on 6 January 1997, taking the archiepiscopal titular see of Ohrid. A year later his titular see was transferred to Ckeikh-Abadeh, but he remained the administrator of the vacant Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. Pope John Paul II appointed Vithayathil Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly for Syro-Malabars on 18 December 1999, and Cardinal-Priest of Titulus San Bernardo alle Terme on 21 February 2001. As Major Archbishop, he also serves as the President of the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church.

Cardinal
Pope John Paul II nominated Varkey Vithayathil a member of the college of cardinals on 21 January 2001 and raised him to that dignity at the consistory on 21 February. His sacerdotal golden jubilee was celebrated under the auspices of the Syro-Malabar church on 8 November 2003. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. In February 2008 he was elected President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India.