A man with roots outside Europe will be consecrated this Sunday as a Catholic bishop in Germany — a development many see as a clear signal about the church’s changing face. Carmelite Father Joshy Pottackal, who grew up in India, will be ordained in Mainz Cathedral and take up the role of auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Mainz in western Germany.
Named to the post in November 2025, the 48-year-old Pottackal has frequently heard people with migration backgrounds respond to his appointment with “At last!” He takes that as recognition that immigrants and their descendants are part of Germany’s Catholic community — a meaningful affirmation in a country where many Catholics have a migration history.
For the Diocese of Mainz, the new auxiliary bishop will help share the diocesan workload. An auxiliary bishop (German: Weihbischof) assists the diocesan bishop by visiting parishes, administering confirmations and representing the diocese. Until March 1 he worked as a personnel officer for Mainz; in his new role he will take on pastoral and representative duties across the diocese.
Pottackal’s consecration is unprecedented in modern German church life: he is the first person appointed to the Catholic episcopacy in Germany who was born outside Europe. While the country’s bishops have traditionally come from a conventional German middle-class background, the composition of the faithful has been diverse for some time. The German Bishops’ Conference reports that roughly 3.4 million Catholics in Germany hold at least one foreign citizenship out of a total of just under 20 million. Local estimates of parishioners who speak a language other than German at home range from about one-fifth in the Archdiocese of Cologne to around 25% in the dioceses of Fulda and Mainz, and nearly 35% in Limburg.
As vocations among young German men decline, dioceses have increasingly turned to clergy and religious from abroad. Several hundred priests serving in Germany are from India, with comparable numbers from various African countries. Religious communities from abroad are also establishing a foothold: a group of Indian sisters recently opened a convent in the Diocese of Münster.
Pottackal notes a historical connection between his order and Germany: the Carmelite province in India was originally founded by German members of the order. Like many Indian religious who now serve in Germany, he describes the country in some ways as a “mission country.” He has lived in Germany for more than two decades, speaks the language fluently and holds a German passport, and he says the appointment matters particularly at a time when people with migration backgrounds can face social headwinds.
Peter Kohlgraf, the bishop of Mainz who proposed Pottackal for the auxiliary post, called the choice “a strong and important sign for our times” when it was announced in November 2025. “The Catholic Church is a global Church,” Kohlgraf said. “There are no strangers in this Church.” Pope Leo XIV, elected in May 2025 and himself with long pastoral experience abroad, has likewise named several bishops with migration backgrounds.
Asked what parishes might learn from someone formed in a different cultural context, Pottackal answers simply: flexibility. He contrasts the typically meticulous, long-planned German parish festival — scheduled months in advance with every detail recorded — with the more relaxed approach common in India, where events are organized with less emphasis on formal planning and more on calmness and trust in God.
He recalls parish celebrations along the Neckar where stalls offered Polish cuisine next to Indian dishes, and says even rural parishes reveal an unmistakable international character. Within church life he has never felt excluded, though he acknowledges moments of uncertainty in everyday life outside the parish, for example when shopping.
Pottackal also reflects on mission settings in India, where people are grateful simply to have a tent to celebrate Mass and do not worry about technicalities such as the number of sanctuary steps or whether an altar is wooden or stone. “Those are typically German questions,” he says. For those unsure what they will eat the next day, such details are secondary; faith, he believes, centers on community and shared worship rather than outward form.
That sensibility shows in his episcopal symbols: his staff, pectoral cross and ring are made of wood rather than precious metals, a modest expression of his priorities. He will not move into a bishop’s residence; Pottackal will remain a Carmelite and continue living in the Carmelite monastery in central Mainz — the community he joined at 15 and where eight brothers currently live and pray. “The monastery is the family,” he says. He is grateful that the diocesan leadership immediately respected his wish to stay in the community where he feels at home.
This article was originally written in German.