Goan Bishop takes up new post at Delhi
PANAJI: Goan Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas has ceased to function as Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, after having taken up the assignment as Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
In an announcement, Bishop Mascarenhas, who hails from Camurlim (Salcete), said he had 'permanently shifted to Delhi and taken up my new assignment as the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India from May 16.'
“I no longer function as the Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi,” said Bishop Mascarenhas, whose experience as a former Vatican official will be crucial as a senior CBCI official in the country's political capital.
“I have concluded with gratitude to the Almighty, to Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Bishop
Telesphore Bilung, all the priests, religious and faithful of the Ranchi Archdiocese, my responsibilities as Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi.”
“I will continue looking after the CBCI's Constant Lieven’s Hospital and Academy of
Health Sciences, Mandar, Ranchi, in the capacity of chairman of the executive committee and as secretary general of the CBCI,” Bishop Mascarenhas added.
The CBCI is also called a federation of three Ritual Conferences of Sui Juris Churches: Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara. It is at the service of 168 dioceses, of which 29 are Syro-Malabar, 8 are Syro-Malankara and 131 are Latin dioceses.
Fr Mascarenhas is the second prelate, after Bishop Alex Dias of Andaman and Nichobar Islands (appointed bishop in 1984), from the Society of Pilar.
