the same meeting and named it "Conference of Catholic Bishops of India – Latin Rite" (CCBI-LR). In January 1994, the Holy See approved its statutes. Hence, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India is an organization having its legal foundation in canon law, which applies to the Catholic church of the Roman rite throughout the world. Therefore, according to canons 447–459, the CCBI is the central church body of the bishops in India and its purpose is to deliberate on matters of concern for the whole Latin church and encourage activities in accordance with the needs of the times. The members of the CCBI are: 1) The diocesan bishops, their coadjutors, and auxiliaries, 2) The administrators of the dioceses when the Episcopal See is vacant, 3) The retired bishops and, 4) those honorary bishops appointed by the Holy See or the bishops' conference for particular tasks. The bishops' conference is headed by a president, who is overall in-charge and represents the conference, a vice president and a secretary general to assist him for a term of two years. The bishops' conference, in addition to plenary assemblies, has an executive committee to handle ordinary matters, the commissions and the secretariat. Organizational structure At first, an ad hoc office bearers body consisting of a president and vice president was elected and a small team of four bishops forming the executive committee assisted it. At its Third Plenary Assembly in Goa (1991) a full team of office bearers was elected and an executive committee consisting of the office bearers, all the metropolitans of the Latin ecclesiastical provinces and the chairpersons of CCBI commissions was constituted. The Holy See approved its statues on 13 January 1994. At the lapse of five years in 1999 and in the light of the Apostolos Suos, the statutes were revised and the Holy See permanently approved them on 3 December 2000 (Prot. 5242/00). The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India was registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. Regd. No.S/19920 of 1 May 1989. Executive committee The executive committee acts as the Administrative Board. It meets at least once a year mainly to see that the decisions, resolutions and recommendations of the Conference are duly implemented. It is composed of: The office bearers of the conference (president, vice president and secretary general). The metropolitans (archbishops of Agra, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bombay, Calcutta, Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Goa and