Two Indian metropolitan archbishops were among the 35 newly appointed metropolitan archbishops from around the world who received the pallium from Pope Leo XIV during the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on June 29.
Archbishop Elias Frank of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, based in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, and Archbishop Antonysamy Savarimuthu of the Archdiocese of Madurai, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, received the ancient insignia as a sign of their pastoral authority and communion with the Successor of St. Peter.
Archbishop Elias Frank, a native of Karnataka in southern India, was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Calcutta in September 2025 after serving as Bishop of Asansol, a diocese in West Bengal. Ordained a priest in 1993, he earned a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome and has served the Church in pastoral, educational, and administrative ministries. He now leads the historic Archdiocese of Calcutta, one of India’s oldest Latin-rite archdioceses, serving thousands of Catholics through an extensive network of parishes, educational institutions, and social ministries.