Goa Archbishop Emeritus Raul Nicolau Gonsalves passed away this morning at 8.30. He was 95 when he took his last breath at JMJ Hospital, Porvorim, where he had been ailing for the past ten days. The funeral date will be announced later.
A native of Bambolim, the Archbishop Emeritus was the first Goan to be named archbishop, after the liberation of Goa. In 1978, he was appointed as bishop, and in 2003, he was named archbishop.
He was actively involved in various important movements in Goa such as the merger, the Raj Bhasha movement, and the Konkan Railway Line movement.
He will be remembered for his efforts to make Konkani the official language of Goa’s Catholic Church, which used to be Latin, as a result of which the Holy Bible and other religious texts were translated into Konkani. He was also a member of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.
