Letter from Pope Francis to the Archbishop of Goa and Daman
To our Venerable Brother
Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão
Metropolitan Archbishop of Goa and Daman
And Patriarch ad honorem of the East Indies
“Be happy with those who are happy” (Rom 12,15): we wish to bring to our mind this soulful advice of St. Paul the Apostle as we write these Letters of ours to you, Venerable Brother. The Silver Jubliee of the Episcopal Ordination that you will be celebrating on the 10th of the forthcoming month of April is a motive of immense joy: we wish that, among other utterly sincere congratulatory messages, our voice too should be sounded. We would not like to miss this occasion without expressing to you with love our sentiments of gratitude and without extolling the various services and initiatives wisely carried out to you for the good of the Church.
Called by the Lord from the youth, you followed him joyfully and promptly dediated yourself to studies in the Seminary and, in the year 1979, you were ordained Priest of the Church of Daman. You begin immediately a fruitful work for the people of God in various parishes and you were a Perfect and Teacher in Minor Seminary. In Rome and, thereafter, in Brussels you pursued studies in the areas of theology and catechesis. Returning to your motherland, you forested the lay apostolate and vocations to the priesthood as well as the formation of students and Priests.
Endowed with excellent qualities, you were chosen by St. John Paul II to be among the successors of the Apostles and appointed Bishop with the title of Canariona and, concomitantly, Auxillary of the Bishop of Goa and Daman, who consecrated you solemnly in the Cathedral Church of Goa. Subsequently, after ten years, you succeeded him in the office. Later, on the 25th day of November of the year 2006, our illustrious Predecessor Benedict XVI restored the ecclesiastical province and appointed you Metropolitan Archbishop of the same, retaining the earler titles of Patriarch ad honorem of the Eat Indies and of Primate of the East.
Backed by a good human and Christian formation, faithful to the Magisterium of theChurch and the Vicar of Christ, excelling in superior gifts and virtues, you exercised your pastoral ministry in praiseworthy manner wherever you were posted, to the spiritual profit of the faithful. Your qualities and gifts became manifest to many of your superiors especially during the twenty five years after you were raised to the fullness of Priesthood. Prudently you maintained dialogue and worked with your priests and faithful as well as with followers of other faiths. You were held in high esteem even by your fellow Brothers in the Episcopate, who recently entrusted to you the office of President of Episcopal Conference of India.
Therefore, we as well as all present here congratulate you on the festive jubilee of your Episcopate. We earnestly commend you to the motherly protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the patronage of the Saints of your people and nation and we wish you an abundance of divine grace.
Finally, we confirm these our sincere wishes with our Apostolic Blessing, lovingly imparted on you in the first place, Venerable Brother, which we wish to extend to all the Bishops, priests, religious men and women as well as the lay faithful who will be sharing your joy, while we ask for your prayers that we may dutifully exercise our weighty Petrine ministry.
From the Vatican, on the twentieth day of the month of March of the year 2019, the seventh of our Pontificate
Franciscus