By Matters India Reporter

Bengaluru: Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh on attaining 75, the canonical year of retirement.

The Salesian prelate was succeeded by Coadjutor Bishop Albert Hemrom of the same diocese in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, says a February 15 press note from the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, the national body of the country’s Latin rite prelates.

Bishop Aind was born on November 5, 1945, in Nahorani in Dibrugarh diocese. He was ordained priest in 1976. He was appointed the bishop of Dibrugarh on in 1994, and was ordained bishop on 19 March, 1995.

Bishop Aind was the fifth and first native prelate of Dibrugarh, which was erected in 1951.

He was the chairman of Social Communication Commission in the North Eastern Regions Bishops’ Council. He is a priest for 44 years and bishop for 25 years.

Bishop Hemrom was born in Konapathar of Tinsukia district of Assam on February 27, 1969. He joined St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary, Dibrugarh, and studied at Christ the King College, and at Oriens Theological College, both in Shillong, capital of neighboring Meghalaya state.

He was ordained a priest for Dibrugarh diocese April 25, 1999. He obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law from St. Peter’s Pontifical College, Bangalore in 2003 and a doctorate from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome in 2014, says the CCBI press note issued by Father Stephen Alathara, the conference deputy secretary general.

Bishop Hemrom served the Dibrugarh diocese first as the assistant parish priest of St. Francis of Assisi Church, Rajabari, for two years. He was then appointed prefect studies at St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary, Dibrugarh, a post he held for three years until 2006).

He then served as the parish priest of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Rajabari, and visiting professor at Oriens Theological College, during 2006-2011. From 2011 to 2013, he studied at the Lateran University in Rome.

On his return in 2014 he was made the judicial vicar of the Diocesan Tribunal and rector of St. Joseph’s Minor Seminary, Dibrugarh. He is a member of the College of consulters and of the Priests Council, as well as secretary of Laity and Family Commission, vocation promoter and visiting professor of Canon Law at Oriens Theological College. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Dibrugarh on December 2, 2018, and ordained bishop on February 24, 2019.