Indian Cardinal Telesphorus Placidus Toppo died on Wednesday 4 October in a hospital near the city of Ranchi in the country’s east, where he was archbishop emeritus. He had been bedridden in the same hospital for several months, “due to diseases associated with old age”announced the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CCBI).
President of the bishops’ conference
Cardinal Toppo was twice elected president of this episcopal conference, between 2001 and 2004 and then between 2011 and 2013. In between these two mandates, he also served as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, which brings together all the bishops of India. three Catholic rites coexist in the country (Latin, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara).
Coming from a poor farming family, he was ordained a priest in Switzerland in 1969. He first worked as a teacher and then set up a call center in Ranchi diocese. He became bishop of Dumka in 1978, then archbishop of Ranchi, near his homeland, in 1985.
In 2003, Pope John Paul II admitted him to the college of cardinals. With the death of Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, the College of Cardinals now has 241 members, including 136 cardinal electors at the conclave.
