Filipe Neri Ferrão


Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, an Indian prelate, is the seventh Roman Catholic Patriarch of the East Indies and thirty-fifth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman, India.

Studies, languages known

He began his religious studies in Seminary of Our Lady in Saligao and then went to the Papal Seminary in Pune. He graduated in philosophy and theology and is fluent in Konkani, English, Portuguese, Italian, French and German.

Clerical Life

Rosário Ferrão was ordained priest on 28 October 1979. He was created Auxiliary Bishop of Goa and Daman and titular bishop of Vanariona on 20 December 1993. He was consecrated by Patriarch Raul Nicolau Gonçalves at the Se Cathedral in Old Goa, with Aleixo das Neves Dias, SFX and Ferdinand Joseph Fonseca co-consecrating. On 12 December 2003 he was created Archbishop of Goa and Daman and Patriarch of the East Indies by Pope John Paul II, upon the resignation of the sixth Patriarch, Raul Nicolau Gonçalves.
His appointment on December 12, 2003 as Archbishop of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman came from Pope John Paul II, after the resignation of Archbishop Raul Nicolau Gonçalves, as Archbishop of Goa and Daman, and was given the solemn entry on March 21, 2004. On November 25, 2006, he was appointed Metropolitan Archbishop of Goa and Daman, by Pope Benedict XVI. The main co-consecrating bishops were Anthony Alwyn Fernandes Barreto, Peter Machado, Dominic Savio Fernandes and John Rodrigues.