Udupi diocese ex-vicar general passes away

Mangaluru: Monsignor Baptist Menezes, former vicar general of diocese of Udupi, and also the former director of Father Muller Charitable Institutions, passed away on Wednesday. He was 75. Fr Menezes was born on July 28, 1948, in Shirva, under Our Lady of Health Church, Shirva, and was ordained a priest for the diocese of Mangalore on October 25, 1974. He holds a doctorate in moral theology from the Lateran University, Rome. He started as an assistant parish priest at the Most Holy Redeemer Church at Agrar, and assistant director at St Antony’s Charitable Institutions at Jeppu. In 1977, he went to Rome for higher studies, and completed it five years later, after which he joined the staff of St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary, Bengaluru, and served till 1994. He later became administrator of St Joseph’s Inter-Diocesan Seminary, Jeppu, Mangaluru, in 1995, and director of Father Muller Charitable Institutions in 1997. He was appointed the episcopal vicar of the diocese of Udupi by the bishop of Mangalore on July 6, 2007, and served till October 12, 2012. Soon after, he was appointed as the first vicar general of the new diocese of Udupi on December 14, 2012. tnn