Team Herald
PANJIM: Two Goa bishops have been elected to the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI).
Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrão of Goa and Daman was re-elected as Vice-President II of the CBCI, while Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Ranchi, was elected as Secretary General.
This will be Archbishop Ferrao’s second term as vice-president of the CBCI, while Bishop Mascarenhas will hold the office of secretary general for the first time.
Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, has been re-elected as CBCI President. The other vice-president is Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur who has also been re-elected.
Bishop Mascarenhas replaces Archbishop Albert D’Souza of Agra, who served as CBCI Secretary General for six years.
Archbishop Ferrao is also vice-president of the CCBI which is the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (Latin Rite), where Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, also a Goan, is President.
CBCI is the permanent association of Catholic bishops of India and includes bishops of the Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara rites. CCBI is a conference of only bishops of the Latin rite.
CBCI objectives are to facilitate coordinated study and discussion of questions affecting the Church, and adoption of a common policy and effective action in all matters concerning the interests of the Church in the country.
