Kolkata: Hundreds of people on June 30 attended the funeral of Retired Archbishop Henry Sebastian D’Souza of Calcutta.
Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, led the funeral Mass at St Thomas Church, Middleton Row, and Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta the burial services.
As many as 14 prelates, including Archbishops Abraham Viruthakulangara of Nagpur and John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar also joined scores of priests and nuns to bid farewell to the former president of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India and the secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).
The CBCI was represented by Monsignor Joseph Chinnayyan, its deputy secretary general. However, there was no representative from CCBI and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference that Archbishop D’Souza had led as its first secretary general.
“The funeral Mass of was quite somber and at the same time memorable,” Isaac Gomes, a prominent Catholic lay leader in Kolkata, wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, as the mourners overflowed St Thomas Church, many had to be accommodated in nearby Loreto House hall. They followed the Mass and other proceedings on a video screen.
“The Missionaries of Charity Sisters caught everyone’s attention with their lovely choir. The Bengali choir too sang well. One of the notable attendees was 94-year-old Fr Rosario Stroscio of Auxilium Parish,” Gomes wrote.
Derek O’Brien, a member of Rajya Sabha and a leader of Trinamul Congress, also attended the funeral service.