By Verghese V Joseph
Vatican/ Bengaluru: The Holy Father, Pope Francis, on Tuesday appointed Rev. Fr. (Prof.) Francis Thonippara, C.M.I. as member of the Pontifical Committee for Social Sciences. The appointment is for five years and he will be attending the annual meeting of the committee in November this year.
Fr. Thonippara belongs to the religious Community of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI). He obtained his Licentiate and Doctorate in Church History from the Gregorian University, Rome. He holds a Diploma in Archival Sciences from Vatican. He teaches Church History, Latin and allied subjects in Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (DVK), Pontifical Athenaeum, Bengaluru, and is a visiting faculty in many other major seminaries and formation houses.
To his credit there are number of books and the recent ones include Dimensions of History (2019), The Syro-Malabar Church and the All India Jurisdiction (2019). He has also contributed to the encyclopaedias, edited works, national and international journals. He is a regular participant of national and international conferences and present research papers.
He is an active member of Church History Association of India (CHAI) and was the Secretary and Treasurer of the national CHAI and President and Secretary of CHAI Southern Branch. At present he is the business manager of CHAI. He is one of the founders of the Association of the Catholic Historians of India (ACHI) and at present he is the Executive member of ACHI. ACHI organised three international seminars in collaboration with the Pontifical Committee.
He was the National Coordinator for the collection of the archival documents of the Indian fathers who attended the Second Vatican Council. He was the former President of Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram and former Provincial of CMI St Thomas Province Kozhikode. He was a member of the Senate Serampore. At present, he is the director of the Dharmaram Publications.
The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was established by the late Supreme Pontiff John Paul II with the Motu Proprio of 1 January 1994. Each of the Academy’s meetings begins with a report on the Church’s social teachings relative to the topic in question.
The Academy investigates points where further elaboration of these teachings seems advisable and provides a constructive evaluation of the teachings in the light of the social sciences. To achieve its aims the Academy organizes conferences and workshops on specific themes, promotes scientific surveys and research, helps institutions and private individuals to execute them, publishes the results of its own consultations and issues publications of a scientific nature.