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IMAGE CRED:

By Prathyush Thomas - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47706671

This episode's image is from Wikipedia since they're pretty chill about image-sharing as long as I credit them and I don't have time to go creating a new image-permission request every day, I've got stuff to talk about. Also, yes, I, a degreed librarian, consult Wikipedia during my research as they are generally a solid aggregator of resources. You have my permission to consult Wikipedia as well, just remember they are not a source in their own right or else citogenesis may occur (P.S. Randall Munroe is a treasure).

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights brought to you daily.

To help make this library as useful as possible, this episode includes show notes with links and a transcript.

Also, despite my insistence that I'm trying to make my episodes shorter, today needs more groundwork than usual so it will be longer than usual. It wouldn't be very good of me to just say things that are true about today's cardinal without explaining them- this is meant to be a handy introduction, after all, and a lot of what comes up today needs a bit more introduction than usual, because today's cardinal has gotten up to a lot and we've got a lot of new titles and concepts to discuss to help you get your bearings. You'll see what I mean here in a minute.

Isaac Thottumkal was born on June 15th, 1959, and I know that a certain percentage of you are already confused as you go to double-check the episode title. We'll get to that. Isaac is part of the overall Pakalomattam family, which is more relevant than you might think because for centuries the Archdeacons [pronounced Arkdiyakons] of India came either exclusively or almost exclusively from this family.

And no, I haven't forgotten how to pronounce Archdeacon, it just so happens that in this cultural context that title is pronounced as Arkdiyakon, and it's not the worst thing that it has a different pronunciation, because we're not talking about a deacon as we know it in contemporary western Catholicism, or even an archdeacon.

You see, back in the day, the Christians of India were part of the Church of the East, that is, the form of Christianity that came about from the Persian Empire. The Catholicos, that is, the head of the Church of the East, would appoint the Arkdiyakons who would head then the Church in India. Though from what I can tell the Arkdiyakons were not bishops- they were, in the end, deacons- they did have such baller titles as "Lord of the Christians".

Now I mentioned Arkdiyakon basically being a family matter, specifically a Pakalomattam family matter, and I mean it. It was apparently straight-up patrilineal succession like you might expect from a traditional monarch, which is weird if you're used to clerical celibacy but as a rule the further east you go tradition-wise the less clerical celibacy applies, and also even in the west keep in mind there's less of an emphasis on that for deacons anyways.

I should note that all of this is poorly sourced and there are some discrepancies with the traditions we have, so apply caution especially if you decide to go to the Pakalomattam family website I've linked in the show notes since that is functionally propaganda but it explains the general received tradition pretty well, from what I can tell.

Breaking the Pakalomattam monopoly on control of the Church in India was a big priority for the Portuguese when they came onto the scene during colonial times and they were eventually mostly successful despite strong resistance. Obviously there's still a family tradition, but it's no longer the only way to go.

Now, as a refresher, the global Catholic Church is made up of 24 sui iuris- that is, self-governing- churches. The Latin Church is the one you're probably most familiar with, and it's active in India, to be sure, thanks to the Portuguese and the Jesuits generally. But we'll set the Latins aside for a minute here.

These days there are two indigenous sui iuris churches that serve the needs of Saint Thomas Christians, as India's native Christian community is known: the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. Isaac, and I think this is the longest I've gone without mentioning the cardinal of the day, but Isaac is from the Syro-Malankara tradition, which (unlike the Syro-Malabar) rejected Catholicism outright for many years but eventually signed up with the Pope through a reunion movement in the 1930s. If you know the Oxford Movement, it was sort of like that.

Now that we're halfway through our target runtime, let's get to what's usually the second half of the first sentence. Isaac was born in Mukkoor, a village in the south Indian state of Kerala. Kerala has long been the heartland of the Thomas Christians, to the extent that I'm surprised when I see a Thomas Christian was born anywhere else in India.

Isaac's initial priestly education was a normal mix of theology and philosophy, though I have to note that the seal of the Papal Seminary, where he did his theology training, appears to not only have the papal tiara and Peter's keys, but also in a wonderful touch in what appears to be a lion holding a sword. I mean sure, he'd go on to get a doctorate in ecumenical theology from the Angelicum in Rome, but that doesn't beat a lion holding a sword in my books.

Anyways, in 1986 at the age of 26 he was ordained a priest for the recently-established Eparchy of Battery, an Eparchy being the Eastern equivalent of a Diocese, with Archeparchies also corresponding to Archdioceses. You get the idea.

Isaac–now Fr. Thottumkal– was made Auxiliary Bishop of Trivandrum in 2001, Trivandrum being the mother see for the Syro Malankara Catholic Church. At that point he took the name Isaac Mar Cleemis, Mar or you may also see Mor being the normal honorific for a bishop in the Church of the East. He chose Cleemis in honor of the Church father Clement of Alexandria, who I'll get to at some point next year.

His first spot as a full-on bishop–Eparch, really–came a couple years later, when in 2003 he was made Eparch of Tiruvalla. In 2006, the Eparchy was elevated to an archeparchy, and Thottumkal rose along with it, becoming an Archeparch. At that point, he added the honorific Baselios to his titles, bringing us to the the most common shorthand for him today: Baselios Cleemis.

But his greatest promotion came the next year, and it's not actually him being made Cardinal. You see, in January 2007, the Bishop of Trivandrum passed away, and Mar Cleemis was unanimously elected as his replacement by the Episcopal Synod of Syro-Malankar Catholic Church.

Back when Mar Cleemis had done his stint as an auxiliary for Trivandrum at the start of the new millenium, it was an archeparchy- nothing to scoff at. But I mentioned this was a greater promotion than being made a Cardinal. In the time since we last checked in, Trivandrum had been promoted the status of a Major Archdiocese– Major Archeparchy, rather, since we're in eparchy territory rather than diocese territory. According to canon 154 for the 1990 Code of canons of Oriental Churches which governs such things and which uses eparch and diocese interchangeably, quote: "Major archbishops hold the precedence of honor immediately after patriarchs" end quote, which does place them above Cardinals in precedence, given that patriarchs are the only ones above Cardinals, and we're putting them immediately below patriarchs.

I know all these titles and terms are, well, a lot, and I am working on getting glossary episodes to link in the show notes. For now, at least you'll have the transcript to give you the spelling.

Beyond the titles, Cleemis has gotten up to a lot, from building AIDS hospitals to founding the center of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in North America, to his roles in the Curia as a Cardinal and in India's Bishops conference.

Baselios Cleemis was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict in his last consistory in 2012. Cleemis was the youngest Cardinal in the world at that time, and as the first Syro-Malankara Cardinal was one of four Eastern Catholic Cardinals to participate in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.

Baselios Cardinal Cleemis is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2039.

That's enough for today. I'm sure tomorrow will be a banger as we begin our Encyclopedia Catholica project with an introduction to Catholic cosmology..

Thank you for listening, God bless you all.

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