Bishop Eugene Joseph

30 May 2015, Bangalore: His Holiness Pope Francis appointed Rev. Fr. Eugene Joseph, of the clergy of Varanasi as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Varanasi. This provision was made public in Rome on Saturday 30 May, 2015, at noon local time, corresponding to 15:30 hours, Indian Standard Time. Fr Joseph is currently the diocesan administrator of the diocese which has been without a prelate since the transfer of Bishop Raphy Manjaly to Allahabad in December 2013. The bishop-elect was born on 31 July 1958, at Rajakamangalam, Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. After schooling at Carmel School, Nagercoil, he studied at St. Theresa’s Minor Seminary, Ajmer in Rajasthan, and then at St. Charles Seminary, Nagpur, Maharashtra. He was ordained a priest for Varanasi diocese on 10 April 1985. He has a Master’s degree in English from Mahatma Gandhi K. V. University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh and Masters in Business Administration and Management from Townsend School of Business, New York, United States. He speaks English, Hindi and Tamil. As a priest he was assistant pastor in St. Thomas Parish, Shahganj and correspondent of St. Thomas Inter-College; vice-rector of the Minor Seminary. He was also principal of St. John Inter-College; pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Ghazipur and Vicar Forane of Ghazipur Deanery. He was also director of Regional Pastoral Centre and principal of Nav Sadhana College, Varanasi. Other jobs he held were the director of St. Mary’s Hospital, Varanasi and vicar general secretary of Education Society of the diocese. He was the founding Director of Varanasi’s St. Mary’s School of Nursing. He became the diocesan administrator in December 2013.