Even though the Church was raised to the Major Archiepiscopal status, two of the essential powers of the Major Archbishop and the Synod, namely, the right of election of the bishops and the right to decide on liturgical matters were reserved to the Pope.

The Major Archbishop was installed at a religious ceremony on 20 th May 1993 held in St. Mary’s Basilica Church at Ernakulam. The Curia of the Major Archbishop began functioning at the Archbishop’s House and lately has been shifted to “Mount St. Thomas”, a place twelve Kms away from the town. The Synod of Bishops met many times and did quite a lot of things. The Synod has already established the necessary administrative structures and formulated particular laws regarding a number of things.

In 1995 the Papal Delegate Archbishop Mar Abraham Kattumana died in Rome. The powers so far exercised by the Papal Delegate were given to Major Archbishop Mar An tony Cardinal Padiyara. In 1997 when Major Archbishop Mar An tony Cardinal Padiyara resigned, Archbishop Mar Varkey Vithayathil was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly. In 1997 a new diocese of Thackalay was created. In 1998 the Pope granted autonomy to the Church to decide on liturgical matters. In April 1999, the diocese of Belthangady was established bifurcating the diocese of Thalassery. In July 1999 the diocese of Adilabad was established bifurcating the diocese of Chanda. In 2001 the first Syro Malabar diocese outside India was established in North America with headquarters in Chicago. In 2002 the eparchy of Idukki was created bifurcating the diocese of Kothamangalam.

Archbishop Mar Varkey Vithayathil was appointed Major Archbishop of the Church of St. Thomas Christians on 18 th December 1999 and was installed in office on 26 th January 2000. Pope John Paul II granted Syro Malabar Church full autonomy in jurisdiction in January 2004. With the conferring of the faculty to appoint bishops and create dioceses in the proper territory, the Syro Malabar Church can now exercise all faculties without reservation in accordance with the norms of Code of Canons for the Oriental Churches.

There are 26 dioceses in the Syro Malabar Church of today across the globe. Fifteen of them are in South India, the home of the Syro Malabar Catholics, and eleven are outside its proper territory. It is estimated that there are more than 3.7 million Syro Malabar Catholics today.

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