By Matters India reporter
Kolkata, March 9, 2019: Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar and head of the Catholic Church in Asia, was chief guest at the International Women’s Day events in Kolkata.
held at Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library situated in the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), 8 March 2019.
The first Cardinal from Myanmar was on a visit to Kolkata to meet with his ailing brother Bernard.
Cardinal also met his former superiors at Salesians of Don Bosco Calcutta province and confreres, and paid a courtesy visit to Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta. He also visited the historical Marian shrine at Bandel.
From 1939 to 2004 Myanmar delegation was part of Salesian Province of Calcutta.
Cardinal met with former Salesian Provincials Fr Thomas Polackal and Fr Sebastian Alencheril at Provincial House Kolkata, as well as the current Provincial Dr Nirmol Gomes and his Council.
Don Bosco alumni welcomed the visiting Cardinal and escorted him to the various events during the cardinal’s two days visit to Kolkata 7 and 8 March 2019.
Cardinal Bo was Executive Guest at the ICCR event on the theme ‘Balance for Better’, to commemorate the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day which brought together women writers from different walks of life.
Ironically the event was inaugurated by two men, Cardinal of Yangon, Charles Bo and Sri Goutam De, director of ICCR.
“Though the battle for gender balance has been long, women can speak up because of the presence of ‘a few good men’, commented one of the participants.
“Our task is to make the few good men, many”, said Joie Bose, Mrs East India and Asst. Secretary of IPPL.
The Cardinal blessed the congregation and prayed for the peace and uplift of women, all over the world.
“Education and enlightenment about the humanity is the key to ending all conflicts including the eternal gender conflict that exists”, the cardinal said.
Former Rajya Sabha MP and a living icon who had established Gender Studies in Calcutta University, Prof. Bharati Ray, gave the key note address.
“Men don’t menstruate, and that is why menstruation is a taboo,” she said while tracing some of the societal norms that have held women back.
Prof. Ishita Mukhopadhyay, a gender rights activist spoke of how the March for Equality is not over and how we need to still observe this day in March. She moderated a panel discussion where Prof. Ajanta Paul, Principal of Women’s Christian College, Public Relations specialist Supreeta Singh, and Social Entrepreneur Nita Bajoria spoke about being single and happy, about female foeticide, rape and kanyadan.
Several poets who are corporate professionals, home makers, professors and scholars read their works on various aspects of women hood and what being a woman means. Rituparna Khan spoke of women being a Creator, and Ananya Chatterjee reminded the audience of the controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen’s works.
“We shall overcome, now,” said IPPL President, Prof Sanjukta Dasgupta,
The 70 year old Cardinal took charge as President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC) on 1 January 2019.
Established in 1972, FABC is a federation of 16 or 19 Bishops’ Conferences from Bangladesh, East Timor, India (both the CBCI and the individual conferences of the Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and Roman Rites), Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos-Cambodia, Malaysia-Singapore-Brunei, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan (RoC), Thailand and Vietnam. Associate members are from Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Novosibirsk (Russia), Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. END