Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Thomas D’Souza from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, effective September 20. With this, Coadjutor Archbishop Elias Frank has automatically succeeded him as the tenth archbishop of the archdiocese, based in Kolkata, the capital city of West Bengal state. He is the sixth Indian prelate of the archdiocese.
In a message, Archbishop D’Souza thanked the archdiocese’s priests, religious and laity for their support during his tenure that began on February 23, 2012. He also shared that he would assist in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Barasat, from September 29. “I will reside in the parish presbytery,” he added. The parish is in North 24 Parganas district, some 25 km northeast of Kolkata.
