(File picture: Bengaluru Archbishop Most Rev Dr Peter Machado greeting Holy Father Pope Francis when he called on him during his last visit)
By Verghese V Joseph –
Bengaluru: As part of their Ad Limina Apostolorum meeting, some 200 bishops from India, in three separate groups, will call on Holy Father Pope Francis in Rome between September 13 and October 3.
Bishops from all over the world undertake the obligatory once-in-five-year Ad Limina visit to the Vatican at regular intervals. Such visits include a visit to the tombs of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, and a meeting with the Pope to report on the state of their dioceses. It is separate from other trips a bishop might make to the Vatican, such as to attend a synod.
Bengaluru Archbishop Most Rev Dr Peter Machado will lead the Karnataka delegation and meet the Pope on September 17. The Karnataka delegation comprises Bishop T Anthony Swamy of Chikmagalur, Bishop K A William of Mysore, Bishop Henry D’Souza of Bellary, Bishop Derek Fernandes of Belgaum, Bishop Peter Paul D’Saldanha of Mangalore, Bishop Francis Serrao of Shimoga, Bishop Gerald Isaac Lobo of Udupi and Bishop Robert Michael Miranda of Gulbarga.
Dr Peter Machado, who is also the President of Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops’ Council (KRCBC), will be leaving for Rome on September 9.
During their Ad Limina visit, all the Bishops of Karnataka, will convey to the Holy Father their filial love, respect and obedience, and request him to impart his apostolic blessings upon all of them and the in people Karnataka. At the same time all Bishop’s pray for Karnataka at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and at the other Basilicas in Rome.
The object of the visit is not merely to make a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles, but, above all, to show the proper reverence for the successor of St Peter, to acknowledge practically his universal jurisdiction by giving an account of the condition of particular churches, to receive his admonitions and counsels, and thus bind more closely the members of the church to its divinely appointed head.
From Goa, Archbishop-Patriarch Filipe Neri Ferrao will meet Pope Francis as part of his Ad Limina Apostolorum visit in Rome between September 18-27. Other bishops of Goan origin in the group include Cardinal Oswald Gracias and three of his Auxiliary Bishops John Rodrigues, Barthol Barretto and Savio Fernandes, Archbishop Anil Couto of Delhi, Bishop Agnelo Gracias, Apostolic Administrator of Jullundur and Bishops Lumen Monteiro of Agartala and Allwyn Barreto of Sindhudurg.
This is Archbishop Ferrao’s second ‘Ad Limina’ visit to the Pope as the Archbishop of Goa, with the previous visit having been in 2011, when he, along with Archbishop-Emeritus Raul Gonsalves, had met Pope Benedict XVI.
Earlier, in the year 2003, then Auxiliary Bishop Filipe Neri had accompanied Patriarch Raul Gonsalves in their Ad Limina, when they met Pope Saint John Paul II.