Conference of Catholic Bishops of India

Conference of Catholic Bishops of India

CCBI logo
Abbreviation	CCBI-LR
Formation	January 1992
Type	Episcopal conference
Legal status	Civil nonprofit
Purpose	To support the ministry of bishops
Headquarters	Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, CCBI Centre, Post Box No: 8490, Hutchins Road 2nd Cross, Bangalore – 560 084, Karnataka, India
Region served	India
Membership	Active and retired Latin rite Catholic bishops of India
President	Cardinal Oswald Gracias
Vice President	Archbishop George Antonysamy
Secretary – General	Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto
Deputy Secretary-General	Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara
Affiliations	Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences
Website	ccbi.in

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India or CCBI, is the national episcopal conference of the bishops of the Latin rite of the Catholic church in India, functioning in accordance with canon 447. There are 132 Latin Catholic dioceses in the country, and 183 active and retired bishops are the members of the CCBI. This the largest bishops' conference in Asia and the fourth largest in the world. The CCBI is a member of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India enables the Latin Catholic bishops of the country to exchange ideas and information, deliberate on the Church’s broad concerns and take care of the pastoral needs of the faithful. The conference is to assist the bishops both in pastoral care and in evangelization, the twin duties of a bishop. One of the main purposes of the CCBI according to its statutes is “to promote that greater good which the Church offers humankind especially through forms and programmes of the apostolate which are adequately adapted to the circumstances of time and place.”

In 1944 a conference of Indian bishops known as Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) was established. When the national episcopal conferences got the juridical and structural recognition during Vatican II, the CBCI began to reorganize itself with infrastructures such as national commissions, regional councils of bishops and national organizations working under its guidance and directives. The promulgation of the Latin Code of Canon Law in 1983 contributed to the debate about establishing a conference only for the Latin rite bishops. The Holy Father St. John Paul II, after his visit to India in 1986, wrote an apostolic letter to the Indian bishops on 28 May 1987. An important text of which reads thus: “The bishops of each of the three rites have the right to establish their own episcopal bodies in accordance with their own ecclesiastical legislation. The CBCI which is an assembly of the bishops of India of the three rites is to continue for matters of common concern and of national and supra-ritual character. These areas are to be determined in the new statues of the CBCI”.

Hence in compliance with the above directive of the Holy Father, the CBCI in its general meeting in April 1988 decided that all the three ritual churches could have their own episcopal bodies. Accordingly, the bishops of the Latin Church started their own episcopal conference in the same meeting and named it “Conference of Catholic Bishops of India – Latin Rite” (CCBI-LR). In January 1994, the Holy See approved its statutes. Hence, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India is an organization having its legal foundation in Canon law, which applies to the Catholic church of the Roman rite throughout the world. Therefore, according to canons 447-459, the CCBI is the central church body of the bishops in India and its purpose is to deliberate on matters of concern for the whole Latin church and encourage activities in accordance with the needs of the times. The members of the CCBI are: 1) The diocesan bishops, their coadjutors, and auxiliaries, 2) The administrators of the dioceses when the Episcopal See is vacant, 3) The retired bishops and, 4) those honorary bishops appointed by the Holy See or the bishops' conference for particular tasks.