To sensitise ourselves on the prerogative  of our call of announcing God’s message to everyone and to fine tune our leadership qualities, 85 major superiors from various congregations participated in the Regional Assembly of TNPCRI held from 27-30 January, 2012 on the theme “Effective and Meaningful Catechises” at Cluny Provincialate, Trichy

Fr. Charles Alphonse in his keynote address said, “Only when we are convinced of what we practice and live we would be able to proclaim effectively. And that demands preparation of any liturgical celebration, prayer service and faith activities.”

As religious we are called to bring hope to people’s lives while living it in our very persons and make God’s presence alive to people. We religious still have many witnessing live examples with us to make our catechesis truly experiential and meaningful, he said.

There is a danger in us that being in administration we may alienate ourselves from self-faith formation, proclaiming the Word of God and being present with the needy and the poor. Let us take up this ministry of faith formation as part of our administrative initiatives.

Prepare people to experience God personally and respond collectively to the challenges of today which come from various spheres like destruction of nature, disasters, politics, religion, healthcare, alienation of the poor and exploitation.

Fr Sebastian, Regional secretary for Catechetics animated the session on the theme ‘Catechism for all’ with ice breakers.

Fr. Clement made a presentation on `Creative and Effective Catechesis’. Catechesis is sowing the seed and emphasized Catechesis as one of our major ministries.

Catechesis is for Christian life and the priority of each congregation has to be Evangelisation and that is transmission of faith, said Fr. Clement.

In the discussion that followed, we felt the need to strengthen our faith in God, pay attention to the teaching of the catechism and its preparation, take up initiatives to share God’s love and His message and proclaim him with joy to people around.

With the help of Fr. Sebasti Raj SJ the Provincial of Jesuits we brought out an “Action Plan”. Each major superior was empowered to encourage their members to dedicate time to catechise themselves and share that message.

We warmly welcomed the TNBC President Most Rev. Dr. Chinnappa DD and Bishops who participated in the joint meeting of TNBC-TNPCRI, acknowledged their support and assured them of our collaboration in their initiatives especially for the year of Catechesis and Faith.

We also had a dialogue on the ‘mutual relations’ and other concerns of our collaboration with the diocesan clergy. While the Bishops thanked the religious for their contribution they asked us to specify the difficulties arising in the mutual relations and told us to solve local problems with the local ordinary.

Rev. Bishop Lawrence Pius spoke about the Catholic TV channel that the TNBC are planning to start under the name “Maadha TV”.

The TNP-CRI informed the bishops how they responded immediately in whatever way possible to help the affected people after the cyclone and read out a special with details. They then requested the bishops to do their part to showcase their solidarity with the suffering brethern.

Br. Paulraj gave an enlightening talk on the Good Governance. He said, “Good Governance is defined as a process of decision making and the process by which decisions are implemented. And our religious society should be the model of that. He also highlighted various points connected to our religious life and its administration”.

At the close of the meeting we thanked Sr. Teresa Rani OSM for her dedicated service to TNPCRI for the past seven years and welcomed Sr. Jacquline SCC as the new secretary of the TNPCRI.

It was a time of meaningful coming together when all of us felt the presence of God filling and blessing us with His wisdom

Pope Benedict XVI has declared a “Year of Faith,” which will begin in October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and will run until Nov. 24, 2013 which is the Solemnity of Christ the King.

Source: CRI,  Fr. Alphonse Charles OFM Cap.

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