PANJIM: Pope Francis has recently appointed Fr Anthony Pascal Rebello, a Divine Word Missionary priest from Goa, as the new Bishop of Francistown in Botswana in South Africa.
Fr Rebello hails from Fatorda and this news has been celebrated amongst the local community.
Fr Tony Menezes, a Goan priest of the Society of the Divine World (SVD) described Fr Rebello as “a missionary in the true sense, often volunteering to work among the poorest and those on the peripheries of society.”
Fr Rebello was serving as the Parish Priest of the Holy Cross parish in Mogoditshane, another town in Botswana, until his appointment as Bishop.
Born on March 18, 1950, in Nairobi, Kenya, Fr Rebello entered the SVD congregation in 1969. He completed his novitiate in Khurda, Madhya Pradesh.
He finished his priestly formation at the DV Seminary in Pune and was ordained a priest in Goa on May 10, 1977.
He got a licentiate in Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1981 and went on to serve as a missionary in Botswana, where he was Parish Priest in Palapye until 1984.
In Kenya, he also held the office of Provincial Superior of the congregation, and in Antigua, where he exercised his ministry in a rural parish and then in the Holy Family Cathedral until 1990. In Angola, Fr Rebello was Parish Vicar, Parish Priest, and Master of Novices. He returned to India and continued his pastoral ministry until 2002.
Since 2003, he has served as a missionary in Botswana, in the Diocese of Gaborone.