[2] The 31st plenary meeting of the CBCI was held at Alphonsian Pastoral Institute Pala from 5 to 12 February 2014 under the patronage of Joseph Kallarangatt as the local host.

Srampickal, a priest from Palai was appointed by Pope Francis as the bishop-elect to the newly founded diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church in the United Kingdom.

[5] In early 2018, Kallarangatt headed a doctrinal committee of the church, which produced a report concluding that the religious interpretation of yoga was incompatible with Christian beliefs.

[7][8] In early September 2018, a Catholic nun lodged a complaint against the then incumbent Bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mulakkal, accusing him of rape.

Five of her fellow nuns of her congregation, the Missionaries of Jesus, began protests over inaction, saying that her repeated complaints to various authorities in the church hierarchy since 2017 had elicited no response.

[9][10] During the police investigation, he was brought in for questioning and he stated that the nun had only made a verbal complaint with him that the "atmosphere in the convent was not pleasant and that she was under stress".

[13]" In July 2021, as part of the "Year of the Family" celebrations, the Palai diocese devised a welfare scheme seeking to increase birth rates among Catholic women by offering financial assistance of ₹1,500 per month, admissions with scholarships at the church-run St. Joseph's College of Engineering and Technology, Palai and free medical facilities for every child born after the 4th child of couples married post 2000.

[15] Critics from within the Syro-Malabar community and elsewhere described it as an unethical and immoral scheme created for petty political gains and as interference in the sexual lives of married couples by unmarried clergy.

[20] Bishop Yuhanon Meletius of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and Bishop Coorilose Geevarghese of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, both part of Oriental Orthodoxy also expressed the strongest condemnations stating that Kallarangatt had fallen into the design of the Sangh Parivar and was creating divisions among minorities with conspiracy theories at a time of growing fascism in India which threatened all of them.

[19] From within the Syro-Malabar Church, the former spokesman of the synod, Paul Thelakkat and Senior Nun Teena Jose slammed Kallarangatt on account of his controversial statement, alleging that the controversy was purposefully orchestrated to distract from the sexual assault and corruption allegations surrounding the church's top leadership and created to forge an alliance with the Sangh Parivar in exchange for warding off investigations from agencies of the Narendra Modi government.

[26][27] The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party extended its full support to the bishop and its several senior state functionaries visited him at his residence after the protests.

[35] Responding to demands of legal action, he stated that the government will not initiate any as the bishop was within his rights to address his sermon's attendees and because he did not intend to cause any communal enmity.