Raul Nicolau Gonçalves

Archbishop Raul Nicolau Gonçalves is an Indian prelate, the first Catholic Goan to be Archbishop of Goa and Patriarch of the East Indies.
He is currently the Archbishop emeritus of Goa. The current Archbishop served the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman as Auxiliary Bishop to his Raul Nicolau Gonsalves, for about ten years (1994 to 2004).

Raul Nicolau Gonçalves (or Gonsalves) was born in Bambolim, Tiswadi, and studied at Rachol and later at the Pontifical Urban University, Rome. He was ordained priest in the Diocese of Goa and Daman on 21 December 1950. On 5 January 1967 he was appointed titular bishop of Rapidum (and Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese) and auxiliary bishop of Goa and Daman.

On January 30, 1978, Pope Paul VI through the bull Quoniam Archidioecesi named him Archbishop of Goa and Patriarch of the East Indies (and therefore Primate of the Indies and Archbishop Cranganore holder). He retired of January 16, 2004, after completing 75 years, the age at which bishops must compulsorily leave their dioceses. This was in conformity with the Code of Canon Law canon 401 § 1.

He was consecrated by Cardinal James Robert Knox. He also was the principal consecrant of Dom Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão and the co-consecrating bishop was Aleixo das Neves Dias, SFX

He was one of the members of the Commission constituted by then Archbishop-Patriarch, Dom Jose Vieira Alvernaz for the establishment of Caritas Goa on 3 January 1962 through Portaria No. 2-62.

He is credited with being the moving spirit, as the then Apostolic Administrator, for the setting up of the Diocesan Family Service Centre of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman in 1975. Gonçalves "felt the need to establish it, during a very critical time where family life was threatenend by the then powers-to-be especially when Emergency was declared and forced sterilization were in vogue as part of controlling the population."

The Archdiocese of Goa and Daman website credits him with being the "first Goan to be appointed Archbishop of Goa and Daman, and Patriarch of the East Indies."

Gonçalves has been a member of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

Gonçalves assumed the helm of the Goa Church amidst a changing political situation. After the Portuguese rule was ended by an Indian military action in Goa, the Portuguese Archbishop-Patriarch Alvernaz left for Portugal and retired to his home in the Azores but he remained the formal Patriarch of Goa till his resignation in 1975. From December 1963 the Archdiocese of Goa was governed by its first Indian Bishop, Msgr. Francisco da Piedade Rebello, as an Apostolic Administrator. Since 1967 he was assisted by Gonçalves as Auxiliary Bishop. Gonçalves succeeded him as an Apostolic Administrator in 1972. After 1975, when Portugal recognised the end of their rule in Goa following the change of the leadership in Lisbon, Bishop Gonçalves could become the first Goan to actually become the Archbishop-Patriarch of Goa, in 1978.

With his appointment, it was argued that "for the first time... Goa's Roman Catholic patriarch is a Goan". Prior to this "the appointee for centuries was Portuguese."