Fr Praveen Pinto
Bangalore, Feb 4: The golden jubilee celebration of the Conference of Religious India and Sanyasa Sangamam was held on February 2 at Mount Carmel College Auditorium, Bengaluru from 9 am to 5 pm.
It was jointly organised by the KRCR and Bangalore CRI. There were an over whelming crowd of nearly 1800 brothers, sisters and fathers from the 10 dioceses of Karnataka who took an active part in the celebration of the day.
It was an auspicious occasion for all of religious to come together, to be renewed and re-energised to continue the mission of Christ Jesus with even more vigour, zeal and enthusiasm.
The morning commenced with the Inaugural session, followed by key note address by Fr. Archibald Gonsalves OCD, President of KRCR, and Rev. Fr. Joe Mannath SDB, the National Secretary of CRI, New Delhi was the resource person of the day. Both were equally challenging the crowd on the need of the hour to be radical followers of Christ and being down to earth in solidarity with the poor and the marginalized.
There was a question hour session. At 12 pm was the Thanksgiving Holy Eucharist; Bishop Henry D’souza was the main celebrant and nearly 100 priests were concelebrants. Bishop in his homily while appreciating the contribution made by the religious to the soil of Karnataka, he also exhorted the religious to continue to do so in the future with greater commitment and zeal in the mission of Christ.
A symbolic contribution to this event was the release of the book on manual on financial information and control of Non- Govt Developmental organisation by Vittal Rao published by Dhyanavana publications. It is an experiential knowledge shared for the vital functioning of any organization or society.
Post lunch was the Young Religious Entrepreneur Award and Cultural Program. The dignitaries on the dias- Archbishop Bernard Moras, president, U T Khadar (Health Minister); guests of Honor- Fr Joe Mannath; Pronab Mohanti, IPS, (IGS, Commissioner of Police-Crime); Victor D’souza (DCP); T J Abraham (social and Anti Corruption Activist); Arlene Manoharan (Fellow & Program Head-Juvenile Justice, Centre for Child and Law, National Law School of India University); Msgr Jayanathan, Fr Archibald Gonsalves, and KRCR Executive Members, Sr Margaret and her team were present.
Sr Genevive, was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award- for her exclusive contribution in the field of Education and 7 other young religious were given the award for their tangible and innovative contribution to the mission entrusted to them in the form of art – dance, music and social development to the cause of the poor and marginalised.
The day’s program came to a close with candle light prayer – very specially seeking justice to the martyr Fr K J Thomas and oath taking by all the members. FrChristopher Crasta and Sr Sonia , were the comperes of the day.
The Religious women and men of Karnataka took up a signature campaign expressing solidarity and demanding strenuous action to be taken against the murderers of Fr K J Thomas. They exhorted the church and government officials handling this case towards a speedy process of the investigation in identifying the culprits. These signatures were submitted by the president of KRCR along with all the religious present to Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah.