Fr Sebastiao consecrated as bishop of Baroda

Margao: Fr Sebastiao (Seby) Mascarenhas, 63, from the Society of the Missionaries of St Francis Xavier, popularly known as the Pilar Fathers, was consecrated Bishop on Saturday at Baroda by archbishop of Bombay Oswald Cardinal Gracias, archbishop of Goa and Daman Filipe Neri Cardinal Ferrao and archbishop of Gandhinagar Thomas Macwan.

Mascarenhas, ex-superior general of the Society of Pilar, will now join his brother bishop Theodore, 62, in the episcopal service of the Universal Church, making the family one of the rarest with two bishops in its ranks.

Bishop Seby will celebrate his very first Mass as bishop in Goa on February 25 at Our Lady of Candelaria Church, in his ancestral village of Camurlim.

He served the Pilar Society and the Church in various important ministries, including professor and rector at the All India Mission Seminary at Pilar, provincial superior of the Mumbai province of the Society of Pilar, superior of the Mission of Daman of this archdiocese and finally, as superior general of the Society of Pilar.

Fr Seby was appointed Bishop of Baroda by Pope Francis on December 31 last year.