TCBC History

Short History of TCBC:

A regional Bishops Council (RBC) was constituted under the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the India (CBCI) to cater to the special needs and conditions of the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh. The nature of RBC is to exercise jointly the pastoral office of the Bishops to solve common problems and promote unity of action. Hence, the APBC/TCBC is an association in which the bishops of Andhra Pradesh, conscious of their unity and solidarity in the Episcopate, jointly exercise their pastoral office by way of promoting common programmers which cater to the needs of the region.

The Telugu Catholic Bishop’s Council (TCBC) takes its origin from the Regional Episcopal Council of Andhra Pradesh which was set up on October 16, 1954 at the Archbishop’s House, Secunderabad, Archbishop Mark Gopu, the first metropolitan Archbishop of Hyderabad, with the objective of strengthening and developing the local Church in Andhra Pradesh. It was later also known as the Andhra Pradesh Regional Bishop’s Council and eventually came to be called Andhra Pradesh Bishops Council (APBC).

The revised Statues of APBC were approved by the members on October 15, 1987 when Archbishop SamineniArulappa was the Chairman of APBC. Taking into consideration the changed context, the Statutes were further revised in the General Meeting held on September 2005, 2008, under the chairmanship of Bishop Gali Bali. After the bifurcation of the undivided Andhra Pradesh into two states of Andhra Pradesh (A.P) and Telangana State (T.S) in 2014, The nomenclature of Andhra Pradesh Bishop’s Council (APBC) was changed to Telugu Catholic Bishop’s Council (TCBC) to denote the Telugu Region of the twin Telugu States.