Christians in India have mourned the death of the nation’s oldest Archbishop Alphonsus Mathias, who attended the Second Vatican Council as a participant bishop. The 96-year-old retired archbishop of Bengaluru died at St. John’s Medical College in Bengaluru, the capital of southern Karnataka, due to age-related ailments. “We have lost a great visionary who introduced local languages in place of Latin after the Second Vatican Council amid opposition from the local Church,” said Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore (now Bengaluru), who currently succeeds him. A statement from the Indian bishops conference said the late prelate “attended the Second Vatican Council as a Council Father,” convened by Pope John XXIII from 1962 to 1965. Mathias was president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in India (CCBI), the national forum of the Latin rite bishops, in 1989 and 1993. “We celebrated his diamond jubilee of episcopal ordination in February, a rare for any bishop,” Archbishop Machado told UCA News on July 11. Mathias had “a special love for the poor and the needy,” Machado said. He added that the late prelate also did not want to publicize his charity works. Mathias championed inter-religious harmony and had “many friends and followers” in other religions, observed Machado. Mathias was appointed as the first bishop of Chikmagalur diocese in Karnataka in 1964 at the age of 35. He was made an archbishop in 1986 to lead the Bangalore (now Bengaluru) archdiocese until he retired voluntarily in 1998, citing poor health. His leadership extended to various international bodies. He was chairman of the Commission for Social Communications of the Federation of the Asian Bishops’ Conference and President of Radio Veritas, the radio project of the Asian bishops based in Manila, the Philippines’ capital. He was also a member of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications and the Council for Justice and Peace in the Vatican. The late prelate, a native of Karnataka, was the fourth child of his parents, Diego Mathias and Philomena D’Souza. His funeral is yet to be finalized.