Kolkata: Pope Francis on September 30 elevated Bishop Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze as the archbishop of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The oblate prelate, who currently heads the diocese of Sylhet, succeeds Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario as the head of the archdiocese that covers the national capital.
The announcement was made at noon in the Vatican and at 4 pm, its corresponding time in Dhaka.
The archbishop-elect belongs to the congregation of Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He was born February 9, 1956, at Puran Tuital, Nawabgonj sub-district, which comes under the district of Dhaka.
He was ordained a priest on February 20, 1987. He had served as the bishop of Khulna during 2005-2011. He was appointed Sylhet bishop July 8, 2011.
The newly appointed archbishop is the current secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, a post he assumed on August 15. He has served as the chairman of the conference’s Commission for Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue.
The Dhaka archdiocese covers an area of 26,788 square kilometers. It comprises the civil districts of Brahmanbaria, Chandpur, Comilla, Dhaka, Gazipur, Manikganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi and Narayanganj.
In 1834, the vicariate apostolic of Bengal was created under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. In 1850, the vicariate was divided into the apostolic vicariates of Eastern and Western Bengal. In 1852, the vicariate of Eastern Bengal, with its headquarters in Dhaka, was entrusted to the newly-founded congregation of the Holy Cross, whose first missioners arrived in 1853. The congregation still serves in Bangladesh.
When India gained independence in 1947, Dhaka was still a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Calcutta in India. It was elevated to metropolitan archdiocese of Dacca by Pope Pius XII in 1950.