Subject: 'austraLasia' # 361

DELHI ARCHBISHOP DIES IN POLISH CAR ACCIDENT

Ambrose Pereira

NEW DELHI: 22nd June -- Alan de Lastic, archbishop of Delhi and president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), died in a car accident in Poland at 2.30 a.m. (IST) on Wednesday.

The archbishop, 71, who was in the forefront protesting recent attacks against Christians in various parts of the country, apparently died of shock, said Donald D'Souza, deputy secretary general of the CBCI in a press note. His car has swerved to save a cyclist, who was however knocked down and died. The driver, a religious brother, got out of the car and offered prayers before the cyclist's body. When he returned to the car he found the archbishop, who was on the front seat, dead.

De Lastic was on his way back to Warsaw from Krackow after a visit to a shrine of Virgin Mary known as "Black Madonna".

The body of the archbishop was kept in state at a nearby hospital and would be flown to India on Thursday for the last rites, the date for which was yet to be finalized, Mr. D'Souza said. Archbishop De Lastic was a proponent of inter-faith dialogue and member of the National Integration Council. Born on September 24, 1929, in the Mandalay district of Myanmar, he was consecrated as bishop in Rome in 1979 by Pope John Paul II.

Archbishop of Trivandrum Cyril Mar Baselios, also the CBCI's vice-president, said, "We have lost an extraordinary and charismatic leader, He was in continuous dialogue with the government on various issues concerning the Christian community in India."

Before his appointment as archbishop of Delhi in 1990, De Lastic was the bishop of Lucknow. Earlier, he was auxiliary bishop of Calcutta