Cardinal Baselios Cleemis (left) receives Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro as the Vatican's new apostolic nuncio to India in New Delhi on Feb. 16, 2017. (Photo supplied)
Church leaders have paid tribute to India’s outgoing apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, through a virtual session attended by 120 bishops.
After almost four years of diplomatic and pastoral service in India and Nepal, he will soon take up his new apostolic mission in Brazil.
Presiding over the meeting, Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao, president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), praised the services of the nuncio to the Indian Church.
“The CCBI is grateful to His Excellency for the excellent services rendered to the Church in India and to the CCBI,” he said.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, recalled his personal and brotherly relationship with the Italian archbishop.
The outgoing Vatican ambassador expressed his thanks to the Indian bishops.
“I had the grace to live useful and fruitful moments of dialogue, discernment and communion with the bishops of India, thanks to your dedicated, generous, competent support and collaboration,” said Archbishop Diquattro.
Archbishop George Antonysamy, vice-president of the CCBI, welcomed the gathering and Archbishop Anil Couto, secretary-general of the CCBI, gave a vote of thanks.
Archbishop Prakash Mallavarapu led the virtual gathering into an initial prayer and Archbishop Thomas D’Souza said the concluding prayer.
Archbishop Ferrao felicitated Archbishop Diquattro with a virtual garland and bouquet. The gathering concluded with a final apostolic blessing imparted by the outgoing nuncio.
Before coming to India in January 2017, Archbishop Diquattro was a nuncio in Panama (2005-08) and Bolivia (2009-17).