It is a great moment for the people of Goa and Daman, as Archbishop of Goa and Daman, Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão has been chosen by Pope Francis to be made a Cardinal.
Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao and the Archbishop of Hyderabad, Anthony Poola, are the only two bishops from India in the list of the announced 21 Cardinals.
The consistory will be held on August 27 this year.
The College of Cardinals is also responsible for the election of a pope, and this is the ninth set of cardinals that Pope Francis has chosen.
Goa’s Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao hails from Corjuem, Aldona. He was ordained priest on October 28, 1979. On April 10, 1994 he was made the Bishop. He remained Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman from 1994 to 2004.
On March 21, 2004, he was installed as Archbishop-Patriarch and appointed Metropolitan on November 25, 2006.
On December 2012, he was elected as the chairman of the Western Region Committee for Catechetics, and Chairman of the FABC Office of Education and Faith Formation on January 2016.
He is currently the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, and has been a member of the Central Committee of FABC since February 2019.