Bishops mourn death of Catholic leader Menezes

George Menezes died of age-related illness on Sept. 10 in Mumbai. He was 87.

Mumbai:  The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India has expressed “heartfelt sorrow” on the death of George Menezes, former president of All India Catholic Union, calling him a “courageous and illustrious” son of the Church.

The 87-year old Mumbai Catholic died of age-related illness on Sept. 10 in Mumbai. Funeral services were conducted on Sunday in Bandra,where he lived with his family.

He was president of Catholic Union for four years from 1986.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Indian bishops’ conference, remembered him as a “prominent Journalist, award winning writer and an inspirational speaker” in a statement issued on Saturday.

“He loved the Church with all his heart. He rendered services as a member of the Pontifical Council for Laity, a member of the “think thank” of Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, besides taking up several leadership roles in Indian Church, the statement said.

“We might have not always agreed with what he said but we were absolutely sure that he loved the Church and wanted the Church to love and be loved,” Bishop Mascarenhas said offering condolences and prayers.

Menezes joined Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party at the invitation of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s and become a member of its National Executive while he was still a Member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

He justified his decision to join BJP saying his strength for it came from Pope John Paul II’s words that “it was better to build bridges than to build walls.”

He resigned from the party in 1992 after the party engaged in supporting crowd of Hindu volunteers, who demolished the 16th disputed Mosque Ayodhya, leading to country-wide Hindu Msulim riots.

“His short stint in politics ended with a hard hitting open letter” to party leader L. K. Advani “lamenting the way things were being dealt with,” Bishop Mascarenhas said in the statement.

He also served India as an Indian Air Force officer and was a diplomat with the Indian Embassy in Paris.

His former colloquies in the Catholic union remembered the leader as “a powerful personality who had the courage to take on the system and fight for rights of the laity and the minorities.”

END