Pope Francis appointed Bishop Shorot Francis Gomes, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Dhaka, as the new bishop of the Diocese of Sylhet on Wednesday, May 12.
The Diocese of Sylhet comprises the civil districts of Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, and Moulvibazar.
The diocese lies in the Ecclesiastical province of Dhaka in Bangladesh and has a population of about ten million people, about 19,000 of whom are Catholics.
“Our congratulations and promise of prayers at the occasion of this appointment,” said Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario, archbishop of Dhaka, in a statement.
Bishop Gomes was born on Dec. 15, 1965, in Hasnabad parish under the archdiocese of Dhaka. He completed his primary and secondary studies from the Holy Cross High School in Bandura. He later entered the Little Flower Minor Seminary in Dhaka.
He started his philosophical and theological studies at the Holy Spirit Major Seminary in Banani, Dhaka, in 1984.
He was ordained priest on May 31, 1990, and later served as rector of the Little Flower Minor Seminary.
From 1998 to 2002, he pursued a doctoral degree in Moral Theology in Rome.
Back in Bangladesh, he served as parish priest of Nagari and Tejgaon for three years until 2005. He was vice rector of the Holy Spirit Major Seminary until he was named vicar general of Sylhet in 2012.
On Feb. 8, 2016, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Gomes as auxiliary bishop of Dhaka while serving as vicar general of the Diocese of Sylhet.
He succeeded Auxiliary Bishop Theotonius Gomes, who retired in April 2014. – Nikhil Gomez/RVA News
