Ecclesiastical Details

The first ecclesiastical unit with Kolkata as its headquarters was established in 1834; it was called the Vicariate Apostolic of Bengal Msgr Patrick Carew was Vicar Apostolic when in 1840 a Spanish Carmelite Father went to settle in Koikhali the first mission of the 24-Parganas (Koikhali is still on the map of the Raghabpur Parish) But in 1847 there was nobody to take over-

The Belgian Jesuits came in 1859 Under Msgr Steins SJ Father Goffinet SJ linked the past by going to Koikhali in 1868; there he lived a saintly life of whom the people still speak about But it was Father E Delplace SJ the pioneer who went around establishing five mission stations in four years (1873-1877) In 1877 Msgr P Goethals became theVicar Apostolic ƒ--The countryside was practically sacrificed to Chota Nagpurƒ- Out of five three Missions were closed and only two were kept: namely Morapai and Raghabpur No wonder that 2800 Catholics we traced in the 24-Parganas District in 1888 had only increased to 3700 in 1920-

In 1886 the Vicariate Apostolic became the Archdiocese of Calcutta Under the guidance of Archbishops P Goethals and B Meuleman SJ the Chota Nagpur Mission developed wonderfully so much so that in 1927 Ranchi became an independent diocese Archbishop Perrier SJ was at the helm since 1924 and he was to remain so till his resignation in 1960 More attention could then be given to the Bengal Districts The Yugoslav Jesuit Priests were invited to come to Bengal and to take charge of the 24 Parganas District That move marked the new start of the Sunderbans' Mission Starting from 1925 right up to 1950 18 Jesuits came from Yugoslavia to work in the Bengal Mission; most of them were posted in the 24 Parganas They started new mission stations or re-opened old ones they built churches and chapels and generally they injected new life in the existing Catholic communities After the war unfortunately the doors were closed and no new missionaries could come in Later the Belgian Jesuits and Indian priests took over the missions The tenure of Archbishop V Dyer (1960-1962) and Archbishop A D'Souza (1962-1969) witnessed further divisions of the Archdiocese: dioceses of Jamshedpur Darjeeling and Dumka Father LT Picachy SJ became the Archbishop in 1969 and Cardinal in 1976 The Orissa portion of the Archdiocese became the diocese of Cuttack- Bhubaneswar and in 1978 the Diocese of Baruipur was born-

The Bull of the Diocese is dated May 30 1977 Bishop Linus N Gomes was ordained Bishop on Saturday November 19 1977 and on Sunday March 12 1978 Rev Fr Leander D' Costa chancellor of the Archdiocese of Calcutta gave canonical effect to the Apostolic Letters during a ceremony which took place at St Stephen the Martyr's Church Kalyanpur-

After a fruitful ministry of 18 years of his episcopate in the diocese Rt Rev Linus Nirmal Gomes SJ tendered his resignation to the Holy Father due to ill health Holy Father accepted his resignation with effect from October 31 1995 Consequently Rev Fr Salvadore Lobo was elected the Administrator of the Diocese He was later appointed the Bishop of Baruipur by the Holy See on Friday November 14 1997 and was ordained a Bishop on Thursday January 29 1998