MARQUETTE – A priest who is new to the Diocese of Marquette has been appointed the parochial administrator of Sacred Heart Parish in Ewen, Immaculate Conception Parish in Watersmeet and St. Ann Mission in Bergland.

Diocesan Administrator Father Francis Dobrzenski recently announced that Father Antony Kalapura, MCBS, 67, of Kerala, India, would succeed Father Michael Akowuah as parochial administrator of those three faith communities in the western U.P. Akowuah has finished a two-year sabbatical in the diocese and returns to Ghana to serve as the financial administrator of the Archdiocese of Kumasi. The clergy changes took effect Sept. 1.

Kalapura entered the seminary of the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (MCBS) in 1964 and made his final religious profession in May 1973. On December 18 of that year he was ordained a priest. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology and then a master’s degree in clinical psychology in India.

Kalapura later furthered his education by obtaining a master’s degree in Formation Counseling and Spirituality, followed by a doctorate in Formative Spirituality, both at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Penn. In addition to the parish work he did while studying at Duquesne, he had previously done pastoral work in the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota.

Kalapura’s ministry in India includes serving as a parish priest, vice rector of the MCBS Philosophy Study House, rector of the MCBS minor seminary, and assistant provincial of the MCBS Emmaus Province.

He was one of the founding directors of Prasada Institute of Integral Formation, which is a Eucharistic Spirituality and Counseling Center, and most recently served as its superior and director. He was also a counselor, spiritual director and professor of psychology and Latin Language at the Jeevalaya Institute of Philosophy. Kalapura also recently served as manager of St. Joseph’s Prasada Public School in India.