Ferrao to head Federation of Asian Bishops Conference

Panaji: Archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao, 71, has been elected as the new president of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference (FABC).

The announcement was made on Thursday during the central committee meeting in Bangkok.

The FABC is a voluntary association of bishops in Asia established with the approval of the Vatican. Its purpose is to work towards the welfare of the Church and society in Asia.

Ferrao, who is currently serving as the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), will succeed archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, cardinal Charles Maung Bo, SDB, when he takes over in Jan 2025. CCBI is the national body of Bishops of the Latin Rite in India.

Bishop Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan, Philippines, has been elected as the vice-president of FACB, and Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, archbishop of Tokyo, Japan, has been re-elected for a second term as the secretary general.

Ferrao was the chairperson of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference Office of Education and Faith Formation (OEFF).

Born in Corjuem, Aldona, Ferrao was ordained a priest 44 years ago and appointed titular bishop of Vanariona and auxiliary of Goa and Daman. He studied philosophy and theology at the Seminary of Poona and obtained a licentiate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Urbanian University in 1988 and a licentiate in catechetics and pastoral theology from the International Lumen Vitae Institute in Brussels in 1991. In Jan 2004, St John Paul II appointed him archbishop of Goa and Daman with the title of ‘patriarch ad honorem’ of the East Indies, and he was installed as archbishop in March 2004.

In Aug 2022, he was inducted into the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis.


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