New Delhi: The tenure of Secretary General of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX ended on June 3, 2019. He will return to his original duties as Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi.
In a thank you note, Bishop Theodore thanked all for their support, collaboration and encouragement. “These three years have been challenging yet enriching for me. I wish to thank all of you for supporting the CBCI Secretariat during my tenure. It has been a joy to serve the Church in India at the National level during this short period.”
Born November 9, 1960 at Camurlim, Goa, he was ordained as a priest in 1988 and appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi on July 9, 2014. Bishop Theodore was elected General Secretary of the CBCI 32nd Plenary Assembly of Bishops in Bangalore. 2016 He has worked for years in the diocese of Ranchi, in Jharkhand state, where most of the population belong to tribal communities.
Jharkhand is among the poorest of the whole Union. According to the CBCI Society for North India Medical Education, 43,96% of the population in the state lives below the poverty line; 12.5% of the population suffers from lack of food, compared to a national average of 2.3%. In addition, the maternal and infant mortality rate is very high: 371 women out of 100 thousand births die in childbirth; 69 children per 1,000 do not survive after birth.