Panaji, Jan 7 (TOI): Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Fr Alexio Das Neves Dias, SFX, as bishop of Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands). The announcement was made in Rome on Sunday at noon.

Dias who will turn 75 in August this year was born in Calangute and consecrated a bishop in January 1985 and was the first bishop of the newly-formed diocese of Port Blair. Prior to his appointment as bishop, he served as a rector of Pilar seminary between 1980 and 1984.

“We thank bishop Alexio Das Neves Dias, SFX, for his dedicated services to the Church in Port Blair and the Church in India, and we entrust him to the intercession of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles,” secretary general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, stated.

Dias studied in Little Flower of Jesus High School, Calangute, and in 1956 at the All India Mission seminary at Pilar. He was ordained a priest on December 21, 1969. He went to Port Blair in 1971 and was appointed parish priest in Mayabunder.

He was sent to Rome for higher studies in 1976 and completed a master’s degree in sociology in Rome and a diploma in communications in London before he served as rector of the Pilar seminary.