Cardinal Baselios Mar Cleemis re-elected as CBCI President

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, has been re-elected as the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) for another term of two years.

The CBCI is one of the largest Bishops’ Conferences in Asia, and is linked to the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

Archbishop of Trichur Andrews Thazhath and Archbishop of Goa Filipe Neri Ferrao were also re-elected as CBCI vice president I and vice president II.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Ranchi, was elected the secretary general. He replaces Archbishop Albert D’Souza of Agra, who has served as the CBCI secretary general for the past six years.

Bishop Lumen Monteiro was re-elected for a term of four years as chairman of Caritas India and Bishop Thomas Dabre was re-elected as the chairman of National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre for a second term of four years.

Archbishop George Antonysamy of Madras-Mylapore was elected chairman of St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, replacing Archbishop Francis Kallarakal.

Invitation to Pope Francis

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, handed over the letter of invitation to Apostolic Nuncio to India Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, on March 7 to forward to the Pope.

The invitation letter signed by Cardinal Cleemis says: “We, 178 Bishops of India, gathered at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, from 2 to 9 March, 2016 for the 32nd Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, humbly request Your Holiness that our dear Nation, India, may also be included in the list of Your Holiness’s pastoral visits in 2016/2017.”

“Our Nation was blessed by the visits of Blessed Pope Paul VI in 1964, of Saint Pope John Paul II in 1986 and in 1990. Being the largest democracy in the world, with an age-old tradition of different religions and cultures, India awaits with eagerness to listen to another Apostle of peace and hope,” the invitation letter further adds.

Letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh

The CBCI president also wrote to the federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking help to trace and rescue Indian Salesian priest Tom Uzhunnalil, a missionary who has gone missing after the March 4 attack on an old age home run by the Missionaries of Charity, in Aden, Yemen.Four nuns, including an Indian, were among the 16 people who were killed.

Missionaries of Charity Sister Sali, who escaped the attack has reportedly said that she saw Father Tom being taken away by the rebels. The nun, who is the superior of the convent, hails from Kerala, southern India. Earlier, it was reported she was a native of Chhattisgarh state in central India.

The CBCI letter to the home minister reiterated “our confidence and faith in you, and hope that you would immediately mobilize the government machinery to trace and rescue Father Tom, who is our fellow citizen.”

Tom worked in Hassan in Karnataka before going to Aden. He belongs to the Bangalore province of the Salesians.

On the penultimate day of the CBCI plenary assembly, 178 bishops collected and collated various suggestions and recommendations that came up during the discussions in the last six days. They bishops came to Bangalore to address the main theme “The response of the Church in India to the present day challenges.”

The bishops also had discussions for preparing the final statement of the 32nd assembly, to be released on the concluding day of March 9.