Father John Fernandes, founder president of the Catholic Priests’ Conference of India (CPCI), died in Mangaluru on July 3, the feast of Saint Thomas. He was 85.
The funeral is scheduled at 9:30 am on July 4 at St.Joseph the worker Church, Vamanjor, Mangaluru.
Father Fernandes, a priest of Mangalore diocese, had made a mark as a renowned human rights activist and a promoter of interreligious dialogue. He had led a number of movements for justice for Dalits, farmers and villagers while serving as pastor of rural parishes under the diocese of Mangalore.
He also fought for the rights of the Catholic diocesan priests in India the leader of CPCI, which was once the national forum of priests influenced by liberation theology.
As a dialogue activist he had addressed several meetings of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS), the umbrella organiza-tions of the Hindu nationalist groups, as an invitee on topics related to interreligious har-mony. He was the recipient of the Herbert Haag Award for Freedom in the Church from Lucerne, Switzerland in 2007.
Fr Onil D’Souza, the dire-ctor of the St Anthony’s poor homes where Father Fernandes spent his last days, said he was “deeply touched by his passion for the poor, his secular app-roaches and sense of justice all through his priestly life.”