Stephen Alathara (born 1 May 1970) is the deputy secretary general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI).[1] He started as the deputy secretary general of the conference on 10 June 2014.[2] He was appointed to this post three times consecutively in 2014, 2018 and 2022. He is the first priest from Kerala to serve as the deputy secretary general of the national episcopal conference. He is the founding Director of Communio, Executive Secretary to the CCBI Commission for Boundary, Chief Functionary of the Episcopal Conference, the Director of CCBI Centre.[3], Bangalore, the Director of Shanti Sadan, CCBI Secretariat Extension, Benaulim, Goa, Incharge of the PR Office in New Delhi and the Editor of the CCBI News. The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India is the largest canonical national episcopal conference in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. There are 132 dioceses and 206 bishops under the conference.[4]
He is a visionary leader who played a pivotal role in establishing several initiatives for the Church in India, including the Communio Pastoral Society to support missionaries in rural areas and the Aviral Outreach Society as the charitable arm of the CCBI. Under his leadership, the Shanti Sadan, the CCBI Secretariat Extension in Goa, was inaugurated in 2020 and Bethania the Youth Centre in Delhi which was blessed in 2019. He was also instrumental in setting up the CCBI's publication division, which later led to the founding of Arclight Global, a company that publishes CCBI Value Education and School Textbooks. Additionally, under his guidance, the Catholic Church launched the Catholic Connect mobile app in 2024. Under his leadership, the CCBI launched a comprehensive Strategic Planning process, consulting over 7,000 stakeholders across 132 dioceses. This effort culminated in the launch of the Pastoral Plan on September 11, 2024, setting a renewed goal for the Church in India.
He is a priest from the Archdiocese of Verapoly,[5] Kerala and a prolific author, columnist, educationist, theologian and visiting professor in various ecclesiastical universities. He is well known for his lectures and workshops. He is the author of 17 books as well as hundreds of articles. His book Introduction to Catechetics[6] is the textbook for Catechetics in many major seminaries in India and abroad.[7]