the goan I network
PONDA
Having served as a priest for four decades, Fr Simon Pinto, presently the chaplain of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chapel at Ponda, is aware of the present difficulties in promoting priestly vocations, let alone the challenges encountering priests during their mission.
“Nowadays, families are small and very few boys show interest in priesthood. Today, the concepts of life are changing with one or two children and even parents don’t encourage their children to enter priesthood,” says Fr Pinto, a member of the Franciscan Friars.
A large number of people greeted Fr Pinto on his 40th sacerdotal anniversary at a recent Eucharistic Mass in Ponda.
Born on October 18, 1952 in Kirem-Mangalore, Fr Pinto pursued his education in Pompei High School and Pompei college in Mangalore. He holds a degree of Masters in Arts in Sociology from the Osmania university. He pursued his priesthood from St. Anthony’s Friar Bangalore in 1970.
There was an initial opposition from his father, John Pinto, to join the priesthood but it was his mother, Martha Pinto, who gave him the support fulfil his desire to be a priest.
Besides his service in Goa, Fr Pinto has also served in Karnataka and Maharashtra. He is fluent in Konkani, Kannada, English and Hindi.
Fr Pinto came to Goa in 1980 and served for three years, before being sent to Bhatkal-Karnataka from 1983 to 1986. He served in Sherali-Murdeshwar and came back to Goa in 1989 to serve as parish priest of St Anne Church, Ponda.
He then was posted in several places including Koramangalam-Banglaore (1998), Chennai (2001), Mumbai (2004), Nagpur (2010) and at Mount Carmel chapel in Ponda since 2016.
