Media Release
Udupi, Jun 28: Fr Charles Menezes, the newly appointed youth commission secretary and director of ICYM the diocese officially assumed charge on June 28.
Bishop of the diocese Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo administered the oath. Former secretary of the youth commission and ICYM director and present chaplain of YCS/YSM Udupi diocese, Fr Edwin D’Souza handed over the documents and congratulated him on his new appointment. "We congratulate and wish great success to Fr Charles Menezes in his new mission."
Fr Charles Menezes hails from Moodubelle parish. He was ordained a Catholic priest for the diocese of Mangaluru before he was incardinated into the diocese of Udupi after the bifurcation of the diocese in 2014.
Fr Charles Menezes was born on October 18, 1963. He did his primary and high school studies in his village at St Lawrence School while his pre-university was done at Poorna Prajna College Udupi, before he joined the St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangaluru in 1982. He was ordained priest on May 8, 1991. Along with his seminary studies in Philosophy and Theology, he also obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Mysore University.
He worked as assistant priest in three parishes namely Agrar, Kulshekar and Vittal for six years after which he was appointed as YCS/YSM director of Mangaluru diocese (1997-2005) to take care of the faith formation of teenagers. He worked as the first independent director of this movement for eight years. He was then appointed parish priest of Neermarga where he worked for five years before his appointment as the national director of YCS/YSM India (2010-2015). He worked in Chennai and New Delhi for five years and made great effort to revive the movement all over India.
Before completing his term of six years, he was elected as international chaplain of IYCS in June 2015 which was confirmed and approved by the Holy See through the Pontifical Council for Laity dycastery on July 24, 2015. He served as the IYCS chaplain from 2015 to 2019. During his stay in France he did his studies on 'Youth Spirituality in Catechesis'. Currently, he is the parish priest of Mother of Sorrows Church, Udupi.