Bangalore 1 July 2022 (CCBI): Most Rev. Raul Nicolau Gonsalves (95) Archbishop Emeritus of Goa e Damão passed away on Friday, 1 July 2022 at 8.45am at JMJ hospital in Alto-Porvorim, Goa. Funeral will be held on Monday 4 July 2022 at Se Cathedral, Old Goa.
Archbishop Gonsalves had led the archdiocese of Goa and Daman for 37 years. He was born June 15, 1927, as the fifth of eight children of Marcos Vicente Gonsalves and Ermelinda Leonor Propércia de Souza in Bambolim. He joined the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol for his philosophical studies. In 1947, he was sent to Rome for his theological studies and was ordained a priest in Rome on December 21, 1950.
He continued with his studies there and obtained a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum of the Propaganda Fide and a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Returning to Goa in 1954, he was appointed professor of theology at the Patriarchal Seminary. In June 1956, he was appointed rector of the diocesan minor seminary of Our Lady, Saligão-Pilerne. He also served as the secretary at the apostolic nunciature in New Delhi for two years from 1962.
On January 5, 1967, he was appointed the auxiliary to the then Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese Francisco da Piedade Rebello. He was ordained bishop two months later in the Cathedral Church, Old Goa, by Archbishop James Robert Knox, the apostolic internuncio in India. On June 30, 1972, he took charge of the office of Apostolic Administrator sede plena of the Archdiocese of Goa, being appointed Apostolic Administrator sede vacante on February 19, 1975.
On January 30, 1978, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Goa and Daman and Patriarch of the East. He became the first son of the soil to hold the post. He retired from episcopal ministry on December 12, 2003. He was a priest for 71 years and a bishop for 55 years.
Archbishop Raul laid down a strong diocesan infra-structure with the help of the right kind of collaborators. He took inspiration from the Second Vatican Council to set up episcopal vicariates and various consultative bodies, besides more than twenty diocesan centers, commissions and other bodies. He also encouraged various apostolates in the archdiocese, such as family, laity, youth, ecumenism, and interreligious dialogue.
He constituted the first diocesan pastoral council and launched historic pastoral plan for the archdiocese, with focus on the establishment of parish pastoral councils and Small Christian Communities. He convened the diocesan synod in 2002 and promulgated the revised Constitutions of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara
Deputy Secretary General, CCBI