FINAL MESSAGE
OF THE 27th PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE CCBI,
HELD AT
BENGALURU
FROM 3-9 FEBRUARY, 2015
“I
have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10)
We, the 130 members
of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India gathered for the 27th Plenary
Assembly at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru from 3-9
February, 2015, wish to convey our greetings of joy, peace and love of Our Lord
Jesus Christ to our Priests, Religious, Lay Faithful and all People of Good
Will.
In the light of the theme of the
Plenary Assembly, “Liturgy and Life”, we deliberated
upon liturgical renewal in the Church in India and reflected on the intrinsic
relationship of liturgy to the life of the People of God. We were encouraged and inspired by the
message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis to our Conference in which, quoting Evangelii Gaudium 24, he invites us to
reflect that “the Church
evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which
is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and
the source of her renewed self-giving”.
Thanks to the Second Vatican
Council, liturgical renewal has enabled us to value and experience the beauty,
splendor and majesty of the liturgy of the Church.
While
considering the relationship between liturgy and life, we could not ignore the
fact that our country is
going through challenging times. Even as the Country has progressed
economically, the benefits have not reached the poor and the marginalized, and
at times have even worsened their situation. We are anxious
about the increasing marginalization of the poor, the Dalits and the Tribals
often in the name of development.
Rising fundamentalism and
communalism threatens to tear the social fabric and the secular nature of our
beloved Country. We feel sad that the law abiding Christian community appears
to be especially targeted. It was in this spirit that we
bishops took part in a “Peace and Harmony March” in order to express our
solidarity with Christians in different parts of our country who are affected
by these atrocities, especially with the Church in Delhi where recently several
churches have been vandalized and desecrated.
We were
conscious of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council that “the liturgy
is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same
time it is the font from which all her power flows” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 10). In the light
of this Conciliar vision, many suggestions and recommendations were proposed
for a liturgy that is celebrated in a proper, effective and relevant manner.
Accordingly the National Liturgical Commission has been entrusted with the task
of bringing out comprehensive liturgical guidelines. However, at this juncture,
we would like to state:
1. In order to promote a full, conscious and active
participation in the liturgical celebrations of the Paschal Mystery, we urge
all ministers and faithful to celebrate the liturgy, with due sense of the
sacred and of beauty and with joyfulness, leading to a personal and
communitarian encounter with God and transformation of life. Care should
be taken to observe the prescribed norms in order to maintain the dignity and
decorum of the celebrations. The holiness of the priest is the leaven of the
liturgical celebration.
2. At the National, Regional, Diocesan and Parish levels, and
in the Formation and Religious Houses, well planned measures have to be
undertaken to help the communities to celebrate the liturgy in all its
richness.
3.
An extensive and regular liturgical catechesis will
prepare the faithful to participate actively in the liturgy and allow the
transforming power of the liturgy to flow into their lives.
4.
We are convinced that inculturation is
demanded by faith in accordance with the exigencies of human nature (Sacrosanctum Concilium 37-40). At the
same time, given the multi-cultured nature of our society and keeping in mind
that cultures are ever evolving and transforming, the sensitivities of the
people and of various groups are to be addressed when efforts are made to
promote inculturation.
5.
Heeding
the Holy Father’s exhortation that sometimes there is “an ostentatious
preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but
without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people
and the concrete needs of the present time” (Evangelii Gaudium #77), we shall strive to make the liturgical celebrations also opportunities for
catechesis on our missionary and social responsibilities, especially through
Homilies and Prayers of the Faithful.
6. As
the Universal Church prepares herself for the Synod on the Family in October
2015, we recognize the importance of the communion of families in neighborhoods
which are the Small Christian Communities (SCC) that always relate liturgy to
life and vice versa. It is through the communion of families in the
neighborhood, that the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church becomes
Eucharistic like the early apostolic communities (Acts, chapters 2 and 4). We
therefore pledge ourselves to strengthen the SCC as the true way of being the
living Church.
May
this Year dedicated to Consecrated Life be also a time of liturgical renewal in
the Communities of the consecrated persons.
This Plenary Assembly was celebrated in a year full
of grace with the recent canonization of three more Indian saints: St.
Kuriakose Elias Chavara, St. Euphrasia Eluvathingal and St. Joseph Vaz. We are grateful to the Church for giving us
saints as models for imitation and as our intercessors in heaven.
May Mary, the Mother of the Word
Incarnate, be our guide and our protector. (Fr.
Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary
General, CCBI)
ANNUAL
DAY OF ST. PAUL’S SCHOOL, GOILKERA
The Staff and students of St. Paul’s
School Goilkera, celebrated the annual day on 7th January, 2015.
Certainly, it was a joyful day for the school family as well as all the
participants of the programme. Varieties of sports activities were conducted to
give the opportunity to every student to discover their talents. The presence
of Honorable Mrs. Joba Manjhi, MLA brought tremendous enthusiasm in students
and staff. She encouraged them verbalizing her interests to help out in the
field of education to the Staff, students and the parents.
Rev. Fr. James Quadros was the Guest of
Honour who also encouraged the people of Goilkera by his very presence. Many
other priests and nuns too witness this great memorable event. Well done! Staff
and students of St. Paul’s School, Goilkera. We wish all the best.
UNITED
CHRISTIAN PRAYER FOR INDIA
In the eve of 11th February,
2015 A prayer service was organized at St. Joseph’s Welfare Centre, hall in
protest of the attacks on Church in New Delhi. Over 1500 Christians of
Jamshedpur gathered at 5.00 pm and prayed for the welfare and unity of every
citizen in the country. Various Churches’ leaders conducted the beautiful
prayer service. It included Bible reading, the sermon of Bishop Felix Toppo,
S.J., prayers for various needs, oath taking by all present in the service etc.
As the media people were present in the prayer service a strong message went to
the people of the place that we need unity. We are peace lover. The following
day a well prepared memorandum addressing to the President of India and copy to
Prime minister of India was submitted to Deputy Commissioner of Jamshedpur.
PARISH
FEAST/CONFIRMATION, TEPASAI
Parish Day was celebrated by the
faithful of St. John’s Britto, Church, Tepasai on 15th February,
2015. On the same day 23 boys and girl received confirmation and 15 boys and
girls received the Holy Communion from Bishop Felix Toppo, S.J. Bishop and 7
priests were led to the altar with beautiful entrance dance. Due to Mage Feast
the crowd was less. Whole liturgy was very devotional. Everyone participated
actively in the liturgy and prayed for the boys and girls who received the
confirmation and First Holy Communion.
There was a short cultural program to
felicitate the Bishop as well as the boys and girls. Everyone enjoyed the
program. At the end all shared the snacks and happily went their home.
BLESSING
OF NEW CLASS ROOMS, MALUKA
St. Paul’s School, Maluka gets a
complete view with the completion of 2nd floor. The blessing and
inauguration of this new block took place on 12th Februay, 2015.
Mrs. Geeta Kora, MLA was the chief guest who inaugurated the new class rooms by
cutting the ribbon. Bishop Felix Toppo, S.J. the Guest of Honour prayed and
blessed it. To honour the invited guests the staff and students of St. Paul’s
School staged a short cultural program. The well prepared program was enjoyed
and appreciated by all. Congratulations to the staff, students and management
of the school!
CATHOLIC
CHARITIES JAMSHEDPR(CCJ), SAMEKIT JAN VIKAS KENDRA (SJVK), VIKAS BHARATI (VB)
FR.
PRABHU BECOMES A GOLDEN JUBILARIAN:
Month of February kept everyone at
CCJ/SJVK/VB extremely busy. Since year 2015 is the Golden Jubilee year
(1966-2015) of priestly Ordination of Fr. Prabhu, the entire staff of these 3
organizations who had gathered for their monthly meetings felicitated Fr.
Prabhu on February 02, on his 50th Ordination Anniversary. In the evening, the Fathers of Parsudih
parish, Pratiksha and Vianney Niwas joined Fr. Prabhu for a Thanksgiving Mass
and then had a quiet family meal together.
Fr. Prabhu mentioned that of the 18 of his ordination batch, 5 priests
have already gone ahead & beyond, 7 are on wheelchairs and sick-beds and
only 6 are presumably in good health and are actively working. Fr. Prabhu went
to Kottayam for 3 days for a Jubilee get-together of his priestly classmates in
the Seminary.
KISAN
MELA
CCJ/SJVK organized 4 Kisan Melas during
this month at Chakulia, Tonto, Kuchai, and Tokhlo. Hundreds of farmers exhibited the
agricultural produce. One farmer at
Tokhlo brought to the Mela big pig 5.6 feet long. The local MLA gave him a big
prize. At all places, many of the Block officers with their staff visited these
Melas and encouraged the farmers and thanks profusely CCJ & SJVK. These
efforts were a grand success.
During this month, apart from having
regular trainings, Viks Bharati hosted the annual convention of Diocesan CRI
with 75 participants, 115 B. Ed college professors and students of St. Xavier’s
Patna, 55 Prof. and students of XISS, Ranchi who had come to Jamshedpur for their
exposure programs. Fr. Alwin has
been busy visiting villages in different parts of our diocese;
he also has been attending various meetings on Social Works in Ranchi,
Bihar-Sheriff and Puri.
GOD
SAVES HIS PEOPLE
On 19th February, a group 35
farmers and CCJ/SJVK staff members from Kuchai
area went to Krishi Vigyan
Kendra, Jagannthpur on an exposure cum training programme on an hired small
bus. On their way back round 5.30pm, at Tungluia village about 5 kms
from Chaibasa, the driver trying avoid an
overtaking motorcycle, applied brakes which caused the bus to turnover. Fortunately, the whole village along with its
Mukhia ( a catholic) helped the group to come out, and got the bus on the road.
All of them were ferried to the Sadar Hospital, chaibasa. After the first Aid,
6 people were admitted to St. Angela’s hospital, Chandmari. The Mukhia and the
local leaders got the Bus and the driver from Jhinkpani Police thana. Till
date, only one injured is in the hospital.
Fr. Alwin and our staff worked all night through, reaching those 30
people back to their homes. Our thanks to God, Chandmari Hospital and to the
Mukhia and his group.
ST.
XAVIER’S SCHOOL, PURULIA
The sky of the month of February seemed
a little murky, overcast with dark and dense clouds as the heftiest cloud of
the third and the Final term exams now rests solely on the rooftop of St.
Xavier’s School, Purulia. High pressure and humidity creates in a lot of
perspiration in the students as they equip themselves and face the onslaughts
of exams with their final masterstroke. Yet, these viscous clouds do drop a few
hailstones, which were well greeted by the whole school with hearty-admiration
and sustained-gratification.
Just at the periphery of the exams, an
unanticipated ‘Badminton Tournament’ was organised for the students, just as to
ease them off from the mounting pressure and tensions of the final terminals.
The tournament declared open for the students of classes VII-IX, was conducted
between 27th -29th of January, and even at this verge of exams, to our
amazement, students numbering over 50, highly energised and enthusiastic
participated in the tournament. Divided into groups, matches were held in
knock-outs, followed by semi-finals, wherein Afrid Ahmed, a student of class IX
qualifies for the final, comprehensively defeating his fellow classmate Umang
Shah, thereby claiming the winning trophy and certificates with pride, passion
and glory. The appeasing and the retreating winter had thus been vehemently
glorified with a passionate and remarkably successful contest and thanks to our
Principal, Fr. Eugene Ekka for his support and encouragement for such a
Herculean contest.
Another noteworthy event of this
recoiling season, had been the ‘Science Festival’15’, organised by the District
Science Centre, Purulia, in which our school too participated along with 15
other participating schools of the district. The exhibition was held between
27th-31st of January 2015, with ostentatious display of over 60 flamboyant
models and the manifestations presented by our school students of class IX on
their models of ‘Global- Warming’ and ‘Electric Power System’ had highly been
applauded and acclaimed. Their hard- work, diligence and intelligence procured
in prizes and certificates even for quiz competitions held there itself,
thereby elevating the graph of the reputation of St. Xavier’s School, Purulia,
higher and steeper.
With these bombardments of events and
glories, torrential rains of the final terminals begin, from the 6th of
February 2015, continuing till the 14th of February 2015, followed by the
extremely soothing session break. Students are now subjected to the aggressive
blitzes of 80 marks’ papers and we all pray with our fingers crossed that each
of them give their best shots and take off to the next class with flying
colours. The report cards are to be distributed as on the 7th of March 2015,
with the new session commencing on from the 16th of March 2015.
DSWC,
GOVINDPUR
With the inauguration of Reconstructive
Surgery (RCS) on 17th February at Nirmala General & Leprosy Hospital, a
unit of DSWC, history was relived at Damien Social Welfare Centre (DSWC). With
the support of Damien Foundation India Trust (DFIT) DSWC has started RCS after
17 long years for the benefit of all those leprosy patients, whose hands, feet
or eyes are disfigured due to this dreaded disease of leprosy. For RCS this
time Dr. Mathew Jacob and Dr. Ashish Wague of DFIT conducted RCS of 9 patients
in three days (17-19 February). At least thrice a year RCS will be conducted at
Nirmala General & Leprosy Hospital and every time doctors from DFIT will
conduct these surgeries.
There was capping ceremony took place at
Nirmala Nursing School, a unit of Damien Social Welfare Centre (DSWC) on 20th
February at 11.30 am, when 10 ANM students of Nirmala Nursing School received
their uniform and took oath to serve the community with dedication. Mr. Niraj
Singh, the Deputy Mayor of Dhanbad was the chief guest, who thanked DSWC for
its effort to serve the society and congratulated the Nursing Students on this
special day.
Announcements:
In collaboration with Ratan Nidhi
Charitable Trust (RNCT), DSWC is going to organize a three days (11 April to 13
April) camp for the benefit of all the disabled people.
RNCT is world renowned Trust, who prepares
well known Jaipur foot (calipers) for all those because of some reasons lost
their foot. They also give crutches to polio victims and hearing aids to those,
who find difficult to hear.
From 11 April to 13 April experts from
RNCT will be at Nirmala General & Leprosy Hospital, Govindpur, a unit of
DSWC and meet the needy and take the measurement for the required equipment.
Then as per the need 2nd camp will be organized and distributed the equipments
among the deserving candidates.
Contact
for the Registration before 20 of March: 8987540422/9470925353/8877183384
KINDLY
PRAY FOR THE SICK
Fr. Manu Horo is admitted to St. John
Medical College, Bangalore for further investigation and treatment.
The
Call to the priesthood… Can you hear it?
The Diocese of Jamshedpur and Society of
Jesus, Jamshedpur province has programs such as vocation seminar and meetings
for prospective candidates for priesthood from 12-17 April, 2015 at Pratiksha
(Seminary), Jamshedpur. 10th & +2 pass boys please contact to
the Vocation Offices for more information at following address:
The Vocation
Promoter
Bishop’s House
P.O. Golmuri
Jamshedpur-831003
Jharkhand
Phone No.:
09572752429
The Vocation
Promoter (S.J.)
Inigo Niwas,
Candidate House
St. Xavier’s
High School
P.B. No. 10, Chaibasa
P.O.
W.
Sighbhum-833201
Phone No.: 9798736320/09546721569
BIRTHDAY (MARCH)
|
Date
|
Name
|
|
13
|
Chonhas Xalxo
|
|
14
|
Elvius Dungdung
|
|
21
|
Dilip Marandi
|
|
27
|
Raphael Monteiro
|
|
29
|
Hermon Tigga
|
|
31
|
Henry Sequeira
|
|
31
|
Nicholas Kerketta
|
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