Father Sebastiao Mascarenhas (adjusting his headgear), the newly elected leader of the Pilar Society, preparing for a thanksgiving Mass in Goa. (Photo by Bosco de Souza Eremita)
The new superior of the Society of the Missionaries of St. Francis Xavier, an Indian religious congregation for men, wants members to lead in mission work.
"The mission is to go out and work with others who don't belong to us, not like us, not of our race or caste, color," said Father Sebastiao Mascarenhas, who was elected Aug. 20 to lead the indigenous society, commonly known as the Pilar Society because it was established on the hill of the same name in 1887 in Goa.
Members of the Pilar Society work in several difficult mission areas of India such as Andaman and Nicobar Islands besides opening missions in Nepal, England, United States, Germany, Italy and Mauritania.
Father Mascarenhas has been rector of the Pilar Major Seminary, provincial of the Mumbai province and Mission Superior of Daman.
In 2010, the Vatican's Congregation for Evangelization of the Peoples appealed to the Pilar Society to take up a missio sui iuris ("independent mission") to more fully participate in the universal mission of the Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI the same year also granted self-governing "pontifical status" to the indigenous Pilar Society, 123 years after it was established in the former Portuguese colony.
