Pope appoints New Aux. Bishop for the Archdiocese of Ranchi

The Holy Father has appointed Rev. Fr Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, currently an Official of the Pontifical Council for Culture as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Ranchi, India, assigning him the titular see of Lisinia.

Rev. Dr. Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, was born on November 9, 1960, in Camurlim, Archdiocese of Goa. He studied Philosophy at St. Charles Seminary, Nagpur, Maharashtra, and Theology at the All India Mission Seminary, the Society of Pilar, Goa. Later, he earned a Masters of Arts in Political Science at Nagpur and then a Licentiate and Doctorate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He made his first religious profession in the Society of St. Francis Xavier, June 14, 1979 and was ordained a priest on April 24, 1988.

After his ordination he held the following positions:

1988-1993: Pastoral work in Punjab, North India, in the parishes and in two schools as Vice-Principal and Principal;

1994-2001: Studies for the Licentiate and Doctorate at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome;

1998-2004: Coordinator of the works of the Society of Pilar in Rome and responsible for overseeing the postulation of the cause for beatification of the Venerable Father Agnelo SFX;

2005: Delegate Superior for the Society of Pilar in Europe;

2006: Official of the Pontifical Council for Culture;

2010: Procurator General of the Society of St. Francis Xavier, Member of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and professor of Sacred Scripture at the Gregorian University and the Angelicum, in Rome.