(September 16, 2011) The last group of India’s Catholic bishops is currently in Rome
on their 5-yearly so-called ‘Ad Limina’ visits, and 11 of them from north India met
Pope Benedict XVI at his summer residence of Castelgandolfo, outside Rome, on Friday.
All heads of dioceses are required to make such visit every 5 years or so to report
on the state of their jurisdictions. Those who met the Pope on Friday were: Archbishop
Albert D’Souza of Agra, Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi along with Auxiliary
Bishop Franco Mulakkal, Bishops Isidore Fernandes of Allahabad, Anthony Fernandes
of Bareilly, Oswald Lewis of Jaipur, Frederick D’Souza of Jhansi, Gerald Mathias of
Lucknow, Francis Kalist of Meerut, Raphy Manjaly of Varanasi and Peter Elampassery
of Srinagar.