By Lissy Kurien

Panaji, May 30, 2022: The elevation of Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao of Goa and Daman as a Prince of the Church, brings India its first cardinal patriarch. With this, India joins Jerusalem, Italy and Portugal.

“We are used to saying cardinal-patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal, and Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, Italy. Now we will get used to saying cardinal patriarch of Goa,” says Father Joaquim Loiola Pereira, secretary of the archbishop.

Cardinal-designate Ferrao is already the Patriarch of East Indies, one of the five patriarchates in the Latin Church.

Pope Francis on May 29 named Archbishop Ferrao as one of the 21 new cardinals. He and others will be made a cardinal at a consistory on August 27 in Rome.

Father Pereira hails as a matter of great joy that the Goa archbishop has been nominated as a cardinal.

“While bringing great honor to the archbishop, it also places on his shoulders greater responsibility to serve the Universal Church as a close collaborator of the Pope. Let us all pray to the Holy Spirit that he may help him in this new mission,” he added.

The cardinal-designate was born on January 20, 1953, at Aldona Parish in Goa. He has an elder brother Octaviano Ferrao and a sister Maria Amelia Raposo.

At the age of 10, he joined the seminary of Our Lady, Saligao.

He studied philosophy and theology at the Pune seminary. He was ordained a priest on October 28, 1979, when he was 26.

He began his priestly service immediately after the ordination as parochial vicar at Salvador do Mundo.

After two years, he was transferred to Chinchinim where he worked for three years from 1981. He was then appointed the prefect and instructor at the minor seminary of Saligao-Pilerne, a post he held from 1984 to 1986.

He obtained licentiate in biblical theology in 1988 from the Pontifical Urban University. He also earned a licentiate in Catechetics and pastoral theology in 1991 from the International Institute Lumen Vitae at Brussels.

When he returned to Goa, he was appointed the first director of the Diocesan Centre for the Lay Apostolate which was started in 1992. He then took over the publication of “Daily Flash,” scriptural reflections by the laity for the laity. A year later he began the Konkani version of the same titled “Jivitacho Prakash” which has a circulation of 21,150. The English edition has 9,100 copies.

His other assignments were convener of the Team for Transfers of Priests; Ecclesiastical Advisor to St. Luke’s Medical Guild, Goa, from 1992 to 1994; and Episcopal Vicar for the North Zone of the archdiocese from 1993 to 1994.

Pope John Paul II appointed him auxiliary bishop of Goa and Daman in 1994.

On 12 December 2003 he was appointed Archbishop of Goa and Daman and Patriarch “ad honorem” of the East Indies.

He was installed as archbishop on March 21, 2004.

He was elected chairman of the Western Region Committee for Catechetics in December 2012 and in January 2016 chairman of the Office of Education and Faith Formation under the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

In February 2019, he was elected the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, the national body of the country’s Latin rite bishops. He became a member of the central committee of the FABC in February 2019.

His love for environment is evident from the way he has filled his office with a variety of plants. His associates credit him with an innate ability to remember the names of people after the first meeting.

He speaks English, Konkani, German, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, Marathi and Gujarati.

Soon after becoming the archbishop, the cardinal-designate started an annual letter for the archdiocesan pastoral year that lasts from June 1 to May 31 with a specific theme, Father Pereira explained. The theme for the 2021-2022 pastor letter was “Stay with us.”

“A Pilgrimage of the Heart,”a light and sound program on the life of Saints Francis Xavier and Vaz at Old Goa, was also inspired by the cardinal-designate. He wanted to give a spiritual perspective to those visiting the Bom Jesu basilica that houses the relics of Saint Francis Xavier.