Archdiocese concludes PreSynodal process

Kolkata 15 May 2022 -With the Closing Holy Eucharist at the Diocesan Pre Synodal Assembly (DPSA) in Seva Kendra Calcutta (SKQ the curtain came down on months of animation, parish consultations and celebration in parishes across the archdiocese, in a process which began on October 17 2021 with Holy Mass at Cathedral of OL of the Most Holy Rosary,Kolkata. The concluding Mass began at 11.95 a.m., behind schedule, as it was decided to give more time to the intense and valuable sharing going on at the General Body meeting of Assembly. The main celebrant was Most Rev. Archbishop Thomas D'Souza, with con-celebrants Vicar General Fr Dominic Gomes Dean of North 24 Parganas Fr Henry Saldana, Director of SKC Fr Anthony Rodricks, and Contact Person for the Synod Fr.Michael Biswas. The entrance dance was performed by the Rainbow Girls. Archbishop in his Homily eloquently spoke on the transformation of the entire Church through synodality, as Priests, Consecrated Men, Women and Lay faithful journey together in communion, participation not Mission. s around us, but instead strengthen relationships with one another," said His Grace. He also spoke about the forthcoming Novena to the Holy Spirit, the guiding force of synodality, and requested Parish Priests to have the Novena in the Parishes. In an aside, the Oath-taking ceremony of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM) Executive Committee of the diocese was included within the service. The young new diocesan ExCo were overwhelmed to take their members. Near the end of the Eucharistic Celebration, Fr Michael Biswas called upon Fr Dominic Gomes to give the Vote of Thanks and the Vicar General obliged; first thanking the Archbishop for his interest in pursuing a synodal church and his constant support. He thanked the Diocese Synod Team Members by individually taking their names and praised them for their effort, dedication put together in conducting and organising the synod process at various levels, in parishes and elsewhere. He thanked Fr Anthony Rodridc for very generously agreeing to have the two day DPSA at Seva Kendra, and for the wonderful hospitality experienced. Fr Michael Biswas, the Diocese Contact Person, was thanked by Vicar General on his commendable efforts in to ma. the Synod a success with the Diocesan Synodal Team. Mr. Farrell Shah, Director of Social Communications, was thanked for preparing the Synod Consultation Toolkit, etc. and other media initiatives to make the synodal process alive. Mr. Ajoy Chaudhuri was also thanked for his contribution to animations in parishes and the Relator, Ms. Anancia Fernandes for coordinating the huge task of synthesing into a concise document the huge number of interventions sent by parishes. Many others were also thanked, as the VG did a thorough job of including each and every one, not the least being the Synod Members present. After the Eucharistic Celebration, a group photograph with all synod participants was taken followed by a sumptuous celebration Lunch before departure.

First profession at Bethany Novitiate Barasat, Kolkata

Sr ClareToppo 

16th May 2022 marked the golden day for our fifteen novices who made their first profession at Bethany Novitiate Barasat. They said a daring YES to the Lord and willingly accepted to be the handmaid of the Lord pronouncing their vows in the congregation of the sisters of the Little flower of Bethany. This was a grace filled event witnessed by many sisters and brothers. Rev Fr Dominic Gomes Vicar general of archdiocese of Kolkata along with the four other concelebrants officiated the Holy Eucharist. He appreciated the Novices for their courage to follow the Lord and their generosity to go out to proclaim the Gospel. 

He urged them to be the ambassador of Christ amidst the challenges and rejection from the world. Sr Benedicta Aranha the provincial Superior of Guwahati Province Felicitated the newly professed sisters and assured them that they are never alone on their journey God always walks with us. 

The presence of Sr Erasma the provincial Superior of Northern Province, Sr Lucious the provincial Superior of Silchar Province , Sr Jessy Maria the provincial superior of Eastern Province with their councilors Sr Ruth, Sr Surekha and Sr Helen D'Costa blessed and graced this event. The newly professed Sr Khone and Sr Roselin expressed their gratitude to God, To the Superior General Sr Rose Celine, her councilors, their provincials, Formators Sr Clare, Sr Jhansi, Sr Renita and Sr Jean Marie and to the entire Bethany family. Sr Jhansi the assistant Novice Directress compered the entire programme. Indeed this was a joyful event for the Novitiate community which rejuvenated our spirits and renewed or religious consecration. 

Couples Seminar held at Seva Kendra Calcutta.

 

Sabrina Mary and Pallavi Fernandez

Archdiocesan Family also helped the couples to set Commission Team organized a Couples Seminar at Seva Kendra Calcutta on Sunday, May 1, on the theme, "Family Life: Beautiful & Fragile". Some 40 couples from all the city parishes attended this renewal program for the married couples. Fr. Gnana Peppin, the Secretary of the Family Commission said, "There will be a series of such seminar will be conducted in all the four deaneries of the Archdiocese and be concluded with the Diocesan Family Day on 26th June 2022." Christopher and Sandra Godfrey spoke on the vocation to married life, its beauty and holiness in God's plan. 

They priorities in their married life while Pramodh and Stacy Fernandez demonstration through a game. "Couples who come with brokenness and emptiness received fullness of joy and spiritual nourishment through this program,"said a participant. Celebrating the Holy Eucharist for the Couples, Fr. Dominic Gomes, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Calcutta exhorted them sayings, "Christ - centered families do a great service to the Church, because peace begins from home". Fr. Gomes gave examples from a Bible and the need to form families like them. 

Another couple was overwhelmed saying,"persons(God,Husband and Wife) make the marriage,’ was very interesting... Without the triangle there is nothing. We felt doing it even one day makes a lasting difference." One participant said, "The program helped us have fun while learning and aided to put fun back to life," and assured, "It gave me an opportunity to rediscover the love I have for my husband and the importance of our marriage as it brought us closer to God and each other. It helped us to clear the air on some issues and made us see that what we have is worth fighting for." The message passed on was beautiful, that husbands and wives love each other and to be in union with God. That they should spend time together, listen to each other, value each other, respect each other and treat each other as they want to be treated. We would definitely recommend others to invest a day to enjoy the benefits of a lifetime.

CHRISM MASS 2022

Kolkata: The Priests of the Archdiocese of Calcutta under its shepherd Archbishop Thomas D'Souza, gathered together to celebrate the Priesthood of Christ popular known as Chrism mass, at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary on 07 April 2022. The Chrism Mass is one of the most solemn and important celebration of the Christian liturgical calendar. The ancient Christian Apostolic Tradition described it as a ceremony taking place during the Easter Vigil at which two holy oils were blessed and one was consecrated. Maundy Thursday is the usual day in which this Mass is celebrated in a diocese or archdiocese. Archbishop of Calcutta Thomas DSouza welcomed all the faithful, priests and religious to the solemn celebration.

Their were gathered around 200 priests, 5 deacons and several religious and lay faithful. The Archbishop while commenting on the significance of the day also explained the importance of the blessing of oils and its use in the daily life of the Church. He also stressed on the fact that pandemic has taught humanity the lesson of inter dependency on one another and the importance of every human individual. Archbishop recalled a quote of Pope Francis "Joy is an echo of our inner holiness." He exhorted all the priests to continue the mission of Christ by obeying the command of Christ; "DO this in remembrance of Me". He gave the example of Fr Stan Swamy who broke his life for his people. Archbishop thanked the priests for their dedicated life as priests in the archdiocese. He called on all the priests to apply the words of the gospel reading; "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me...". 

Archbishop enumerated the four pillars i.e. Closeness to God, closeness to Bishop, closeness to brother priest and closeness to our people, given by Pope to all the priests and appealed all the priests to live faithfully in their daily ministry. After the final blessing the newly elected superior general of Missionaries of Charity, Sister Joseph Michael and other jubilarians were felicitated. The vote of thanks was proposed by Mr. Francis Chen. The priests and other invited guests were served with delicious meal. 

New Plan Activated for SCC in Midnapore Deanery.

 FR. DOMINIC GOMES VG 

On 21st and 22nd March 2022, 51 Parish Coordinators, Animators and veteran members of Small Christian Communities from 11 Parishes participated in a residential workshop held as a part of the ongoing process of SCC growth in Midnapore Deanery. Last year on 19-20 October an SCC Orientation workshop was conducted for over 60 participants who had gone back with very detailed parish action plans. Unfortunately the Christmas season that was followed by Covid 2nd Wave restrictions in January 2022 slowed things down considerably.  In mid-February Fr. Dominic Gomes, Vicar General visited Kharagpur and had a very fruitful meeting with Fr. Reginald Fernandez Dean of Midnapore and other parish priests and SCC coordinators with a very significant outcome – 13 Parishes and Sub-stations in the Deanery were clustered into six different Zones primarily based on the proximity of the Parishes and six Priests were each given charge to guide SCC in the Parishes in these six Zones. 

Barring two parishes who had Lenten Retreats on 21-22 March, it was attended by all those who had participated in the October workshop where the 4-Marks of SCC based on the 4 pillars of One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church were explained in detail and 7-Step Gospel Sharing was elaborately demonstrated in group work and interactive sessions. This workshop was held in the backdrop of the re-formed SCC operational structure with the purpose of providing advanced inputs on re-vitalising SCCs through a systematic growth plan focusing on family participation.

As always the program started with a Solemn Bible procession and enthronement. The three lessons of focus for this workshop were - God’s plan for marriage and family; Forgiveness and handling conflict with love in the family; and SCCs Evangelize family. The methodology followed was fully participatory as the participants worked in four groups first reading aloud the inputs, accompanying Bible readings, and Church Teachings from the three lessons material in English, Bengali and Hindi, and then after reflection and discussions based on the questions provided with the lessons the groups prepared and presented their reports. Different members of the Diocesan Resource Team (DRT) facilitated each step of the process, and provided supplementary learning inputs at the end of the reporting sessions for the three lessons.

On the second day (Sunday) Holy Mass was celebrated by Fr. Dominic Gomes and concelebrated by Fr. Reginald Fernandes Dean of Midnapore. The concluding part focused on a stock taking-cum-planning exercise with 10 parishes setting up immediate targets of what they would do till the end of April 2022. This session was led by Fr. Reggie who has been constantly following up with the Priests designated to the six newly formed Zones and his enthusiasm has imparted a great impetus to the SCC growth efforts in the Deanery. The reports of the Parish after a round of discussion and planning in group.

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KOLKATA – 2nd Workshop of SCCs Evangelize Families

 Fr. Dominic Gomes VG 

Workshop for SCC Animators was held at Archbishop House on 19 March 2022, of the five Zonal Workshops conducted over the last six months this was the second on the theme ‘SCC Evangelize Family’. The day commenced with a solemn Bible procession and enthronement at 9:30. The Gospel message was “to be the leaven in our mission”. Thereafter Rev. Fr. Dominic Gomes the Vicar General and the Director of the SCC commission of Archdiocese of Calcutta welcomed participants from four parishes namely Our Lady of Holy Rosary Cathedral; Sacred Heart Church Dharmatala; St Thomas Church Middleton Row, and Christ the King Church Park Circus. Fr. Dominic introduced the SCC Diocesan Resource Team (DRT) of Mr. Ravi Samping, Mr. J C Lakra, Mrs. Manju Linda, Mrs. Christine Cramer and Sr. Rajni Marandi SMI who conducted the sessions during the day. The day was blessed with presence of Rev Fr. Peppin the director of the Family Commission and Sr. Alma Montero CSC who provided an inspiring input on why and how it is important that every family, the nucleus of the Universal Church, should and can be living examples of Christian life and living so as to glorify God and His Church.

The day was set in three sessions with the themes – (a) God’s plan in marriage and family life; (b) Forgiveness and healing conflicts with the love in the family; and (c) SCCs Evangelize the family. The entire workshop was conducted in a fully participatory and interactive mode with the 41 participants formed into three working groups and DRT members filling in supplementary information at the end of each session. 

The participants found these sessions very engaging and useful in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of one's own family and Christian life. The sessions also instructed on ways of renewal and revitalization of one’s family life so that they may become beacons of love, service and forgiveness among the society/communities they live in. It is by this exemplary Christian family life that more and more families could be inspired and motivated to join the SCC movement and continue to serve the community and the Church with all humility to foster peace and justice all around.

This second workshop covered all the animators in the parishes in Kolkata Deanery as some had missed attending the first workshop conducted earlier in February 2022. The SCC DRT will continue with these Zonal workshops for parishes in the other three Deaneries and hope to complete this phase of spiritual growth of families within the SCC by the end of April 2022 before going on to more advanced issues to make the SCC a vibrant movement in the Archdiocese.

Sister Mary Joseph – new leader of Teresa nuns.

 By Francis Sunil Rosario

Kolkata, March 15, 2022: Sister Mary Joseph says she had spent a sleepless and anxious night before accepting to be the new leader of the Missionaries of Charity, the world renowned Catholic religious congregation founded by Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata

The election of the third successor of Mother Teresa took place on March 12, during the congregation’s monthlong general chapter that began in February. The apex body of the congregation will conclude the meeting on March 19, the feast day of St. Joseph.

Speaking to Matters India after the morning Mass March 15 in the congregation’s Green Park convent where the Chapter is being held, Sister Joseph said that she asked nervously “Why me?” when her name was announced to take over the congregation spread all over the world. A series of thoughts and challenges came to her mind. Foremost of them was fear.

However, she felt peace at heart, when Jesus assured her in prayer that He will be with her in all her responsibilities and mission.

For her it was “a decisive night,” her dark night of soul, to say “Yes” to God. And “I prayed, ‘Make me a channel of your peace, O Lord.” She then became the first native Indian to head the 72-year-old congregation.

Sister Joseph hails from Poyya, a small interior village near Mala in the Thrissur district of Kerala, a southern Indian state. It is located 40 km south from the district headquarters, 4 km from Mala and 241 km from the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram.

Sister Joseph was born in 1953. Her parents are no more. She has three sisters and a brother, all of them with well settled families. She says her simple and ordinary family maintained the cultural traditions and was deeply rooted in Jesus and Gospel values

Since her school days, Sister Joseph wanted to dedicate her life to God. She was deeply attracted by Jesus, his suffering for humanity and poverty. This helped to be drawn by the simplicity and spirit of poverty of the Missionaries of Charity and their wholehearted service to the poorest of the poor.

After completing her matriculation, at the age of 17, she went to the Trissur Vocation Centre and met a Missionaries of Charity nun, Sister Anand from Germany, who invited her to join her congregation. “Thus, I found my sacred ground to serve Jesus.”

The words of Jesus, “I came to serve and not to be served” further motivated her. It was easier said than to practice it in life.

She joined the congregation in 1970 after attending a “come and see” program. She made her first profession in 1974. She was then sent to Melbourne in Australia, where she served the aboriginals. After a year, she was made the formation director in Melbourne for five years.

After completing her term as formation director, she was sent to Papua Guinea after completing an eight-month tertian-ship in Kolkata. She made her final profession in May 1980.

Mother Teresa recognized Sr. Joseph’s qualities. She was made a formator and later the novice mistress when she was a young nun. She was made superior of several houses and as head of some regions, both in India and overseas. These roles have equipped her with sensitivity needed to become attentive to the needs of the poor and the most deprived of society.

After tertianship, she continued in formation at Premdan (abode of peace) in Kolkata for six months and for three years in the congregation’s headquarters called Mother House as the novice mistress. Thereafter, she was sent to the Philippines in 1984 as novice mistress and the superior of the house until 1990.

“Through the years living the charism of MC, I had to purify my intention to serve Jesus in the poor. In reality, we have to discover the cross of Christ daily,” Sister Joseph explained.

After the fall of Communism in Russia and neighboring countries, Sister Joseph was sent to Czech Republic in Praha (Prague) in 1990. It was a challenging task for Mother Teresa to send her sisters to Eastern Europe.

The region, historically known as Bohemia, had become an Eastern Bloc Communist state following a coup in 1948. Attempts at a liberalization of the government and economy were suppressed by a Soviet-led invasion during the Prague Spring in 1968. In November 1989, the Velvet Revolution ended communist rule in the country, and on January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia was dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

This region consisted of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Czech Republic. Sister Joseph served as the congregation’s superior in Poland during 1990-2000. She was appointed the Regional Superior from 2000-2004 a post she held for four and a half years.

In 2009, when Sister Mary Prema took over as the superior general from Sister Nirmala Joshi, Sister Joseph was elected as the first councilor, a post she held until 2015.

In 2015, she was appointed the superior of the Motijheel community in Kolkata, the place where Mother Teresa began her mission among the poorest of the poor.

Sister Joseph says the new post was for her returning to the roots of the congregation’s charism, emerging out of the heart of the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized and deprived of society.

Mother Teresa, who came to India as a Loreto nun, founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 as a response to “a call within the call to belong to Jesus and serving the cause of the poor.”

Sister Joseph says the three years until 2018 was for her an opportunity to follow the footsteps of Mother Teresa.

In 2019, she was appointed the superior of the Kerala region.

Sister Joseph says her religious life helps her find meaning in the suffering and cross of Christ. Therefore, she finds any depth of suffering, tragedies, sickness and diseases an opportunity to love and embrace the cross of Christ. She finds fulfillment in living the reality of the poor, their struggles in life, the uncertainties and insecurity they face in life.

“My experience as MC is to feel so privileged to have the gift of this charism, God’s mercy to me, I have experienced and I am deeply grateful to God who gave me the Gospel charism. My life is to share the joy of giving and to put into practice charity among the poor and the most deprived.”

She quotes Saint Paul the Apostle to accept Jesus as the “corner stone” of her new mandate to serve Him, satiating His thirst in the poorest of the poor and face boldly whatever challenges in future with the strength of God.