Robert D'Silva (7 June 1925 – 15 October 2015) was a Pakistani

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

Biography

He was born in Karachi, Pakistan. He attended

St Patrick's High School, Karachi St Patrick's High School is a Catholic primary and secondary school located in Saddar Town, Sindh, Karachi, Pakistan. Founded by the Jesuits in 1861, the school is the second-oldest school in Karachi.Ali, G. and Ali, M. St. Patrick’s: A journ ...

, where he was a classmate of BJP President L.K. Advani. He studied theology in

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

from 1944 and was ordained a priest on 24 August 1952. Since then he has held many appointments including parish priest of Christ the King Church, St. Lawrence's Church and parish priest of St. Patrick’s Parish. In 1985, D'Silva who was then the parish priest of St. Anthony's Church, built and expanded the St. Anthony's Boys School to become a full-fledged Matriculation school. In 1994, he lobbied officials to seek permission to build an Old Priests Home on a Civil Lines plot of land owned by the

Archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

. In 2000 the Old Priests Home was completed. A beautiful Chapel inside fulfilled the spiritual needs of the first residents, Frs. Robert D'Silva, Melito Dias and Joseph D'Mello. From 1995 to 2001 D'Silva was the parish priest of Fatima Parish. The Father Robert D'Silva Golden Jubilee Invitation Inter-school cricket tournament was named in his honour in 2002 to celebrate 50 years of his priesthood. D'Silva has led many pilgrimages to

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, as well as to the Marian shrine in

Fátima, Portugal Fátima () is a city in the concelho, municipality of Ourém and Santarém District, district of Santarém in the Oeste e Vale do Tejo Region of Portugal, with 71.29 km2 of area and 13,212 inhabitants (2021). The homonymous Freguesia, civil ...

. In 2004, he led a group of 300 pilgrims to the Indian state of Goa for the decennial exposition of

Saint Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative o ...

's relics in Old Goa. At the time he is once again the parish priest of St. Lawrence's Church in Karachi. His last posting was as Assistant parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Karachi. He died in Karachi on 15 October 2015.

References

St. Patrick's High School, Karachi alumni 20th-century Pakistani Roman Catholic priests Pakistani people of Goan descent People associated with Shillong 1925 births 2015 deaths {{Pakistan-reli-bio-stub