Bangalore 27 February, 2021 (CCBI): Most Rev. Linus Nirmal Gomes, S.J. (99) Bishop Emeritus of Baruipur, West Bengal passed away on Saturday, 27 February, 2021 at 3am at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. Funeral will be conducted on Monday, 1 March, 2021 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Baruipur at 3pm. He would have completed 100 years on 7 September, 2021.
He was born on 7 September in 1921 in the small village of Balidior, under St Francis Xavier Parish Borogolla, in the district of Dacca, Bangladesh. He went to St Thecla’s pre-primary school by RNDM Sisters and Bandura Holy Cross High School in Bangladesh. He came over to Calcutta to enrol at St Xavier’s college and later joined Jesuit Congregation.
He studied philosophy at Sacred Heart College in Kodaikanal in Tamilnadu from 1945 to 1948. He graduated in Bengali literature in 1949, completed regency in 1950-51 and studied theology from 1952 to 1954. He was ordained a priest together with 21 deacons at Kurseong by Archbishop Ferdinand Perier of Calcutta on 21 November, 1954.
After his ordination he was appointed as assistant parish priest of St Teresa Parish, Calcutta. Pope St. Paul VI appointed him the first Bishop of the newly formed diocese of Baruipur in 1977, when he was the parish priest of St Teresa’s Church, AJC Bose road, Taltala, Kolkata. He was ordained Bishop by late Cardinal Lawrence Trevor Picachy on 19 November 1977. He served the nascent diocese of Baruipur for 18 long years, literally nurturing and building it up from its inception.
After his retirement from the active Episcopal ministry on 31 October1995, he was sent to Bangladesh in 1997 to support the Jesuit works there. He remained there for about 18 years as well 1997 to 2014, mainly in Dhaka, rendering spiritual ministries to the Christian community and religious sisters at Monipuripara, Dhaka. In 2014 he returned to India and lived in St. Xavier’s College Jesuit community in Kolkata. He is a priest for 66 years and a Bishop for 43 years.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara
Deputy Secretary General, CCBI