Joseph Kallarangatt is an Indian Catholic prelate and theologian, who is the 3rd Bishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Palai. He was ordained as a priest in 1982, later received a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy and was appointed as the Bishop of Palai after the resignation of Bishop Joseph Pallikaparambil in 2004. He was initially an assistant parish priest and became a theologian and seminary teacher after his ThD. Following his appointment as a bishop he was able to gain considerable influence within the hierarchy of the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic church within the Catholic Church, and has been regularly selected to participate in various high-profile ecclesiastical ceremonies and duties of the Syro-Malabar Church. He was also appointed to head the doctrinal commission for determining of the Catholic Church's stance towards yoga, which concluded that the practice was incompatible with the Christian faith.Kallarangatt is involved in a number of controversies over providing sops to influence Syro-Malabar Christian women to have four or more children, and promoting conspiracy theories such as "love jihad" and "narcotics jihad". He has also been accused of using the love and narcotics jihad controversy as a distraction from the sexual assault and corruption allegations surrounding the church and to forge an alliance with the Hindutva movement in India, in an effort to prevent corruption investigations from agencies under the Narendra Modi government. Wikipedia
India: Bishop decries ‘love jihad’ and ‘drug jihad,’ ‘In the eyes of a jihadi, non-Muslims are to be destroyed’ https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/09/india-bishop-decries-love-jihad-and-drug-jihad-in-the-eyes-of-a-jihadi-non-muslims-are-to-be-destroyed (september 13, 2021)
