Diocese of Khunti
Bishop Binay Kandulna
Bishop's House,
Torpa Road, Khunti P.O. & District,
Jharkhand - 835210, India
Phone: +91 6528-220389 (O), 6528-220716 (P)
Email: bkandulna@gmail.com, bishopkhunti@gmail.com
Bishop Binay Kandulna was born on Jan. 3, 1964, in Gondra. He was ordained priest on April 23, 1994. He was appointed as auxiliary bishop of Ranchi archdiocese on Feb. 11, 2009. His episcopal ordination took place on May 1, 2009. He was appointed bishop of Kunti on Nov. 30, 2012. The diocese had been vacant since the death of Bishop Stephen M. Tiru in March 2012.
Previous Ordinaries:
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Stephen M. Tiru (1 Apr 1995 Appointed - 3 Mar 2012 Died)
In a land area of 3, 365 square kilometers, the diocesan territory covers Khunti civil district.
Population
In Khunti civil district, the population is 971,000 as of 2016. Major tribal groups are Munda, Oraon, Gond, Chick-Baraik, Gorait, Karmali, Lohra, Mahli and Birhor.
Language
Languages used in the diocesan territory are Hindi, Sadri, Mundari, and Oraon.
History
The first Catholic Father in Chotanagpur was Father Augustine Stockman, SJ, whose work began in 1868 in Chaibasa. He was the first to preach the Gospel in the four parishes in the Munda region, over a period of more than 20 years. In 1885, Father Constance Lievens SJ, the "Apostle of Chotanagpur", settle in Torpa, the western part of the diocese. The tribal Mundas flocked to Torpa to hear him.
Father John Baptist Hoffmann's mission to the Mundas began in 1893. His outstanding contributions lay in his struggle for the rights of the tribals. He also set up a co-operative bank to free the people from the tyranny of money-lenders and his invaluable work on Mundari language and culture is seen in his 16 volumes "Encyclopedia - Mundarica" which he worked after his repatriation to Germany in 1915.
In 1928, the archdiocese of Calcutta gave birth to the diocese of Ranchi. Bishop Louis Van Hoeck SJ was selected as the first bishop.
In 1952, Ranchi became an archdiocese with Archbishop Nicholaus Kujur SJ as its first archbishop.
The diocese of Khunti was established by Pope John Paul II with southern territory taken from the archdiocese of Ranchi. Khunti diocese comprises the whole civil subdivision of Khunti and the parish of Bandgaon in West Singhbhum district. The Catholic population of the diocese consists mostly of scheduled tribes, chiefly Mundas. Bishop Stephen M. Tiru, bishop of Dumka, was transferred to Khunti on May 12, 1995, as the first bishop of the new diocese. Bishop Binay Kandulna was appointed bishop of Kunti on Nov. 30, 2012. The diocese had been vacant since the death of Bishop Stephen M. Tiru in March 2012.
Political
Khunti has one parliamentary constituency comprising Khunti and Simdega civil districts. There are three state assembly seats in the diocese.
Transportation
The transportation mode in the region is the road.