By Fr. F. M. Britto
Raipur: Preparing itself to draft a diocesan pastoral plan, Raipur archdiocese in Chhattisgarh state aims “to build a Christ-centered Catholic community, enriched by local culture, for witnessing and proclaiming the gospel.”
Kushal Neogy of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) helped a select group representing priests, nuns and lay leaders of the archdiocese to draft the pastoral plan. A team was entrusted to draft the plan.
Archbishop Victor Henry Thakur of Raipur, who attended the Oct 24 -26 workshop, said, “We cannot make the vision and mission of the Church. It is already given by Jesus. We can only try to understand Him in our context and execute it.”
Deploring the deteriorating situation of faith in the families, he exhorted the participants to “build strong and faith-filled families.”
The participants decided to reorient their apostolate on the families, youth, children, evangelization, education, social work, ecumenism and other religions.
Identifying the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the archdiocese, they decided to improve upon them.
The participants also explored the various physical, natural, economic, political and social assets of the archdiocese and its various internal and external shocks, cycles and trends.
The (Latin-rite) Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) has already issued guidelines to form diocesan pastoral plans. It wants to deepen our faith in Jesus, to live lives of love and service and to promote integral, human development with a preferential option for the poor and marginalized and for the salvation of all people.
Neogy introduced the workshop that a pastoral plan is a document that affirms the philosophy of the diocese, determines the priorities and identifies the necessary steps to achieve these goals. “We cannot do everything. We have to be focused. I need to choose what I can do,” he added.
At the end of the session, Neogy, involved in animating various groups in Asian level since past 22 years, exhorted the participants to “start in a small, concrete way and not to wait for all.”