VATICAN
Fr. Ajit Victor Costa, OMI
Delegation Superior of Bangladesh
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Bejoy Nicephorus D’Cruze, OMI, as Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bishop D’Cruze was born on Feb. 9, 1956, in Dhaka. He made his First Vows as a Missionary Oblates of Immaculate on September 6, 1983 in Bandarawela (Sri Lanka), and was ordained a priest on February 20, 1987 in Golla (Bangladesh). He has obtained his Ph.D. in Dogmatic Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.
As a priest, he was the pastor in several parishes, Rector of the Oblate Juniorate (Dhaka), Superior of De Mazenod Scholasticate (Dhaka) and also the Oblate Delegation Superior from 2001-2005.
As a bishop, he was first called to serve the diocese of Khulna, from 2005 to 2011, and later was installed the first Bishop of Sylhet on September 30, 2011. Under his leadership, Oblates carried out a massive evangelizing mission in this diocese, establishing many parishes, missions and educational institutions.
Bishop D’Cruze has had roles as chairperson of the Episcopal Commission for Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh (CBCB). After the recent death of Archbishop Moses Costa, CSC, he was chosen to be the General Secretary of CBCB as well.
According to the latest (2017) statistics, the Archdiocese of Dhaka has a Catholic population of over 80,000 (0.3% of the total population of the diocese). There are 26 parishes and 20 missions, with over 100 priests and 600 lay religious serving in them. (Sources: www.gcatholic.org)
In deep communion with all our conferrers around the world, and with the members of Oblate Associations, the Oblates of the Bangladesh Delegation express our deep gratitude to God for choosing our brother to serve as Archbishop. We assure him of our prayers.
