Team Herald
MARGAO/RAIA: Well known evangelist of Goan origin Fr Conceicao D’Silva died of a massive cardiac arrest early Sunday morning just few days before celebrating his 66th birthday.
His funeral will be held on February 8, at the St Michael’s Church, Orlim at 4 pm.
Since Fr Conceicao was serving as the parish priest of Our Lady of Snows Church at Raia, a mass will be held at 10 am there and his body, which is kept at his ancestral house at Orlim, will be taken to Raia for Mass before being brought back to Orlim for the funeral.
Born to Mousinho D’Silva and Luzia Perreira on February 13, 1955, Fr Conceicao was ordained as a priest on May 7, 1983 at Orlim church and his first appointment was as assistant parish priest at Holy Cross Church, Verna. He was then posted at Tilamol and Calangute and at all three places he established parish youth associations and strengthened them.
He was later posted as a chaplain at Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel, Ambelim in 1995 and this is when his mission of evangelisation began after he attended a retreat at Kerala along with some youth from Ambelim. He started a prayer service at Ambelim, which attracted thousands of devotees and this continued at each place where he served.
From Ambelim he was transferred to Mandur, Carambolim, Taleigao and lastly to Raia and what is significant is that he renovated the old churches at Mandur and Carambolim besides literally rebuilding the Ambelim chapel.
Fr Conceicao preached not only at different places in Goa but even in countries like England and France where there is a sizeable Goan population.
He used his preaching talent to conduct prayer services where the faithful experienced healing.
He held weekly prayer service wherever he was posted and at Raia it was held every Friday where thousands of people would take part. During lockdown following the pandemic he had a virtual prayer service.
A strong proponent of Konkani in Roman script, Fr Conceicao was associated with the Dalgado Konkani Akademi besides being a convenor of the Konkani in Roman script movement. He contributed to various churches whenever they were in need of help.
If late Fr Savio Da Gama, who was instrumental in organising retreats in Goa in the late 1980s and early 90’s then it was Fr Conceicao who carried forward Fr Savio’s missionary zeal without getting tired throughout his life. In between, Goa witnessed many priests who took to preaching and conducting retreats, with late Fr Lourenco Mascarenhas who was in charge of Fr Joseph Vaz Spiritual Centre, Old Goa, when he expired also of a heart attack, being one of them. Fr Lourenco has opened a retreat centre at Banda, in Sindhudurg which is still conducting prayer services.
Fr Conceicao joined the Seminary of Our Lady (Diocesan Minor Seminary) on June 18, 1969 and was ordained a priest on May 7, 1983 at his native place Orlim after completing his Philosophy and Theology Course at the Patriarchal Seminary Rachol.
After a year of training at the Pastoral Institute, Old Goa, Fr Conceicao was appointed as assistant parish priest at the Holy Cross Verna, then at Tilamol and later at St Alex Church Calangute. He helped the youth in the parishes by forming associations and guided the youngsters in their life.
After attending a retreat at the Divine Retreat Centre, Muringoor, Chalakuddy (Potta) with some youth in 1995, Fr Conceicao, who was posted as a chaplain Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel at Ambelim, began his retreats along with prayer services. People around the village slowly began trickling down to Ambelim, hearing of his powers of healing. The word spread around Goa and people from all walks of life, irrespective of their religion, thronged for his services conducted on Friday.
He was later transferred as a parish priest in Mandur, Carambolim and in Taleigao where he continued with the prayers services. Wherever he was posted, people from all over Goa continued attending his services with special buses coming to his parish where Fr Conceicao was posted.
Fr Conceicao was also instrumental in mobilising funds, reported to be close to Rs 1 crore, to the St Joseph Vaz Centre, Old Goa. As a football lover, he was also behind arranging matches between the Rachol Seminarians and the local parish youth, specially on the Vocation Sunday.
As a worried citizen, Fr Conceicao was very concerned about the poor people, specially his parishioners in Raia during the pandemic and helped in distributing essential food packets to those needy.
His Raia parishioners said they were shocked to hear about his sudden demise and ‘will always miss him as his spiritual guide.’
