Indian Bishops appoint new spokesperson

May 15, 2012: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has appointed Fr. Dominic D’Abreo as its public relations officer.

The priest from Vasai diocese in the Indian state of Maharashtra replaces Divine Word Father Babu Joseph, who held the post for more than nine years.

Fr. D’Abreo is currently the registrar and public relations officer of the National Institute of Social Communication Research and Training, CBCI’s media training institute. He will take charge of the new post from June 1. He had done his media studies from the Mumbai-based Jesuit-run Xavier Institute of Communications.

At a function to bid farewell to Fr. Joseph and welcome his successor at the CBCI Centre on Monday, the conference’s secretary general Archbishop Albert D’Souza of Agra commended the Divine Word priest for presenting the Indian Church’s views on social, political and moral issues during one of the country’s most turbulent periods.

Fr. Joseph “was the right person at the right time” for the Church to let the world know its stand on various issues that affected the country and society, the prelate told a gathering comprising mostly media persons and CBCI staff. The priest took conscientious efforts to present the correct views without getting into any controversy, he added.

One of his major challenges was to tackle unprecedented attacks on Christians and their institutions at various parts of India, especially in Orissa and Karnataka.

Father Joseph said his main and tough task was to find a place for the Church in society and make “our views on social, moral and political issues in the corridors of power.”

Fr. Joseph took up the national post in 2003 after a stint as the public relations officer of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh.