The new diocese was declared in December 2013 by His Holiness Pope Francis. The head quarters of the diocese will be Kanjikode and the spiritual abode of the diocese will be St.Sebastian’s Cathedral Church popularly known as Mathakoil .The diocese is bifurcated from Coimbatore diocese and Calicut diocese, 16 parishes from Tamil speaking and 5 from Malayalam speaking. The consecration and installation of the new bishop was on February 16 th 2014.There are 35 priests working in the diocese .There are 31,500 Latin catholics and 55,320 Syrian catholics. The Sultanpet Multipurpose Social Service Society is taking care of the welfare activities of the diocese.

 

   A view of the Inaugural function

Sultanpet Multipurpose Social Service Society (SMSSS) is registered under the Societys Registration Act 1860 with the Number of PKD/CA/323/2014. It is an official social service wing of the catholic diocese of sultanpet which was erected on 16th February, 2014 by Pope Francis as a 31st diocese in kerala. The diocese was formed by uniting some geographical areas from Calicut Diocese of Kerala and Coimbatore diocese of Tamilnadu. The diocese was formed with the aim of co-ordinating and fulfilling the pastoral needs of the Latin Catholic faithful and social needs of all the people of Palakkad district in Kerala. The Diocese has a unique nature as its mission is to take care of the people of different culture, language and lifestyle. Since Palakkad is border district of Kerala, one part of the Diocese is adjacent to Tamilnadu where people are neglected by both the Government. So also there is variance in the lifestyle of people from two backgrounds. Hence it indeed is a unique mission that the Diocese has to fulfill the social needs of all the people with the help of Sultanpet multipurpose social service society (SMSSS).

SMSSS was inaugurated by His Excellency Most. Rev. Dr. A. Peter Abir, the Bishop of Sultanpet on the 15th, May 2014. It was started with the aim of uplifting the poor and marginalized. In this inaugural function Bishop mentioned that This society is not only for Christians but also for all the people of Palakkad. Rev. Fr. George vettikatil the Executive director of Kerala social service forum, Rev. Fr. Antonyraj the national director of kolping india, Rev.Fr. Jegan Antony the executive director of Coimbatore Multipurpose Social service society, Mr. Raju Thottam the chief Manager of South Indian bank Palakkad, all the priests of the diocese, sisters, and the leaders of all the SHGs were present for this Inaugural function.