News by: Fr Francis Rodrigues,
Raknno: Pic by Fr Victor Vijay Lobo
Oct. 04 : Rev. Fr Fredrick Moniz who is a priest of the Diocese of Mangalore passed away on Thursday October 4th 2012 at 11 a.m. in a private hospital in Mangalore because of old age. He was 89 years old and a priest for the last 62 years.
His funeral Mass would be celebrated at St Vincent Ferrer Church, Valencia at 4.00 p.m. on Monday 8th of October and the mortal remains would be interred at priests’ cemetery in Valencia.
He was born at Moodbidri Parish on October 19th 1923 as the son of Salvadore Moniz and Christine Pais.
After the priestly studies at St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Mangalore on the 10th of April 1950.
After being the assistant parish priest of Taccode (1 year), Pezar (6 years) and Bantwal (2 years) parishes, he was the Parish Priest of Kadaba for 2 years, Narampady (Nekraje) for 9 years, Karkala Attur for 8 years, Urwa for 7 years, Karkala Town for 8 years and Permannur for 5 years.
Having retired from the active priestly ministry in 1999, till to date he lived in Kankanady Vianney Home, the home for the retired priests.
According to Most Rev. Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza, the Bishop of the Diocese of Mangalore, Fr Fredrick Moniz was a clever and active priest with a committed and prayerful approach.
According to Msgr Denis Prabhu the Vicar General of Mangalore Diocese, even though Fr Fredrick Moniz hails from Moodbidri Parish he was brought up and studied in Urwa, Mangalore. He was ordained a priest in Urwa and was also the parish priest of Urwa. Being a very clever priest he should have received the opportunities for higher studies.
He was a renowned preacher of retreats with fluent language and interesting explanations. He was a flowing dictionary both in English as well as Konkanni. He would meet people and remember them always.
As young energetic parish priest of Narampady he traveled miles and miles on a bicycle. There were number of priestly vocations from Narampady during his tenure. Fr Fredrick Moniz lived an unostentatious life without publicity and noise.
While he was the parish priest of Karkal Town he inspired many lay leaders to come forward and to establish a school through a trust. And the Christ King School that was started in Karkal during his tenure has reached upto P.U.C. today and is very famous in the vicinity of Karkal and around.
