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Diocese of
Bijnor
The ecclesiastical unit of Bijnor was
created as an Apostolic Exarchate on 23 March 1972 by the papal bull
“Beatorum Apostolorum” of Pope Paul VI and was entrusted to
the Sacred Heart province of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate for
the work of evangelization and Rev. Fr Gratian Mundadan cmi was
appointed the Apostolic Exarch. The Apostolic exarchate of Bijnor
was bifurcated from the diocese of Meerut. It consists of the civil
districts of Bijnor (excluding the tehsil of Dhampur), Pauri,
Tehri, Uttarkashi and Chamoli of the then state of Uttar Pradesh.
Later the district of Haridwar was created taking parts of Bijnor
and Saharanpur and district of Rudraprayag was created by dividing
the district of Pauri. In 2000, when the new state of Uttarakhand
was created, the districts of Pauri, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Chamoli,
Rudraprayag, and Haridwar became part of the new state. At present
the eparchy of Bijnor consists of a part of the district of Bijnor
in Uttar Pradesh and districts of Pauri, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Tehri,
Uttarkashi and a part of Haridwar in Uttarakhand.
Pope Paul VI raised the apostolic
exarchate of Bijnor to an eparchy by the papal bull “Quae cum
Romano” on 26 February 1977 and Apostolic Exarch Gratian
Mundadan CMI was appointed as its first Bishop.
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