PANAJI
Pope Francis on Wednesday appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi Theodore Mascarenhas (61), SFX as the new Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Daltonganj in Jharkhand.
This appointment is an additional to his present office as Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi.
According to Dr Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary General of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), the Diocese of Daltonganj was vacant in 2016 by the resignation of Bishop Gabriel Kujur, SJ and Bishop of Hazaribag Anand Jojo was appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of Daltonganj on July 7, 2016.
Bishop Mascarenhas was born on November 9, 1960, in Camurlim-Salcete. He studied Philosophy at St Charles Seminary, in Nagpur-Maharashtra, and Theology at the All India Mission Seminary of the Society of Pilar.
He holds a Master of Arts in political science from the Nagpur University, and a licentiate and doctorate in sacred scripture form the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome. He was ordained a priest on April 24, 1988.
After his ordination, Bishop Mascarenhas has held a number of pastoral roles, which includes Pastoral work in Punjab, North India, in parishes and in two schools as Vice-Principal and Principal (1988-1993), Coordinator of the works of the Society of Pilar in Rome (1998-2004), superior delegate for the Society of the Missionaries of St Francis Xavier in Europe (2005) and official of the Pontifical Council for Culture (2006).
Since 2010, Bishop Mascarenhas has been procurator general of the Society of St Francis Xavier, member of the Pontifical Committee for the International Eucharistic Congresses and lecturer in sacred scripture at the Pontifical Gregorian University and at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome.
He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi on July 9, 2014 at the age of 53 and was ordained Bishop on August 3, 2014. He was the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) from March 2016 to June 2019. He is a priest for 33 years and a bishop for 7 years.
