SOUTH ASIAN COORDINATORS ADDRESS THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATING TO FAITH IN TODAY’S CONTEXT OF SPIRITUAL PASSIVITY & MEDIA REVOLUTION
The online meeting of South Asian Coordinators of the Dimension to Faith organized by Fr. Gilbert Choondal, South Asian Coordinator of Education to Faith was held on 31st August, 2020 from 9.10 am to 10.10 am.
Fr. Savio Silveira, Provincial Delegate for Dimension of Education to faith initiated the meeting by briefing the South Asian Coordinators of the Dimension to Faith on the vision of the Congregation regarding this dimension with a special focus on GC 28. He reminded the members about the importance of addressing this ministry of educating to faith in today’s context of spiritual passivity and modern media revolution especially in this time of the pandemic. He proposed the ‘Catechesis of Hope’ given by Pope Francis that can be disseminated in multiple ways during this Pandemic. Fr. Gilbert presented a short report of the Dimension and proposed some suggestions.
In the light of these two presentations, an open discussion was held among the members and the following proposals came forward. In this year of Laudato Si’, the monthly online catechetical Programme on Laudato Si’ Year initiated by Nitika Catechetical Centre, Kolkotta from August will be continued. The Coordinators were encouraged to contribute by way of resources or concepts for this monthly programme via YouTube. The ‘Catechesis of Hope’ consisting of 38 talks from the Wednesday Angelus of Pope Francis from 2016 to 2017 will be disseminated in ways and means proposed by the participants during the days of the pandemic. To training the Catholic Teachers & Catechists of the parishes, a one-day animation programme was proposed at the province level. The members also planned to collate and collect Catechetical resources available on a variety of topics into one Portal. An online Laudato Si’ Quiz for Schools and parishes of Salesian Provinces will be organized at parish, school and regional level. Finally an empirical research was proposed to gauge the faith level of families and youth during this pandemic.
Fr. Vijay Noas Soy SDB
Fr. Babu Varghese SDB