From spokesperson to Bishop, Franco Mulakkal had meteoric rise

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 21

On the evening of April 21, Bishop Franco Mulakkal was leading a candle light march in Jalandhar alongwith clergy, community members, residents and local politicians seeking justice for Kathua rape victim.

At that time, he was unaware of what was coming to him. Today exactly four months later, he stands arrested by the Kerala Police for allegedly committing the same crime against a nun, who was once a part of a congregation of Jalandhar Diocese.

Having begun his career as a spokesperson of the Diocese of Jalandhar, it was with his proficiency in public relation skills that he managed to quickly gain top positions in the Catholic Church.

In June 2008, from being spokesperson of Jalandhar Diocese, he rose to get appointed as the Consulator of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

His new job was at Vatican City, where he got a golden opportunity to build relations in the temporal seat of Roman Catholicism. His job was promoting dialogue with the followers of other religions, promoting studies and conventions for sharing of knowledge.

Knowing well the ways to make it to the top, he had done PhD with his thesis work titled ‘Theological investigation into moral teachings of Guru Nanak Dev from Catholic perspective’.

Within six months in January 2009, Franco got appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Delhi.

Four years later, in 2013 at the age of just 49, he came to serve as Bishop in the same Diocese where he earlier served as PRO.

His functioning remained quite different from his predecessors, including Bishops Symphorian Keeprath and Anil Couto, who rarely interacted publicly and kept a distance from the media. 

Even his dressing style was in stark contrast as the bishop wore colourful robes at functions – in bright purple, dark green and red while sporting designer headgears and flashy accessories.

During every Christmas, he used to invite leaders of all political parties and business community over a cup of tea at his official residence.

As bishop, he organised various political events too inviting the ruling government leaders to its functions.

Ahead of 2017 elections, he had invited Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal to Jalandhar for thanking him for forming a Christian Welfare Board in Punjab, held a close-door meeting with him and honoured him at a function that he called ‘Christian Sadbhawna programme’ indicating the support of his community for the SAD-BJP alliance.