India’s Latin-rite bishops'
plenary assembly
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| India's Latin-rite Bishops. |
The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) is
holding its 31st plenary assembly in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, January 8 to 14
on the theme, “The Joy of the Gospel”.
By Robin Gomes
India’s Latin-rite bishops are gathering in the
holding their plenary assembly next week in the seaside town of Mahabalipuram in
southern India’s Tamil Nadu state.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI)
of the Latin-rite bishops, is holding its 31stplenary assembly at
the Joe Animation Centre from January 8 to 14 on the theme,
“Evangelii Gaudium”, or “The Joy of the Gospel”, the Apostolic
Exhortation of Pope Francis that deals with the Church’s primary mission of
evangelizations in the modern world.
The bishops “will chalk out detailed programmes and action plans
to revitalize the ministry of love and compassion of the
Church at the diocesan and parish levels,” wrote CCBI Secretary-General Father
Stephen Alathara in a statement on January 2.
The assembly will be inaugurated January 8 with a solemn
Eucharistic celebration presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio to India and
Nepal, Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro. CCBI president,
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay will preside over
the inaugural meeting.
Programme
Several speakers, including a nun and
a lay man are scheduled to address the bishops on various
aspects and ways to promote the “Joy of the Gospel” in the Church in India by
upholding the ministry of love and compassion.
The CCBI plenary meeting will also look into the present
situation of the Church in India.
The secretaries of the fourteen commissions and the three
departments of the CCBI will present the biennial reports of
the activities for the year 2017 and 2018. The Bishops will evaluate the
programmes and plan out future activities of the commissions and other bodies
that come under the jurisdiction of the CCBI.
The assembly members will elect new office bearers
and commission chairmen.
CCBI president, Card. Gracias is also the president of the
Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Catholic
Church in India that includes bishops of India’s 3 ritual Churches – the Latin
and the two eastern rites, the Syro-Malabar and the Syro-Malankara. The
cardinal also served as the president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’
Conferences (FABC), ending his 2 terms on December 31.
The weeklong plenary assembly includes a day of
recollection guided by the well-known theologian and preacher,
Fr. Anil Dev of the Indian Missionary Society of
Varanasi. Also on the agenda is a pilgrimage to the tomb
of St. Thomas, the Apostle of India and to the Marian shrines during which the
Church and the dioceses in India will be entrusted to the patronage of St.
Thomas and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The host Diocese of Chingleput headed by
its Bishop Anthonysamy Neethinathan will accord the CCBI participants a solemn
public reception on January 13. It will include a Holy
Mass presided over by Card. Gracias at the Bishop’s House ground.
The CCBI plenary assembly will conclude with a Holy Mass on
January 14 presided over by the newly elected CCBI president.
According to Fr. Alathara, the CCBI, with 132 dioceses and
189 bishops, is the largest bishops’ conference in Asia and the fourth largest
in the world.
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