By Sujata Jena

Gopalpur-on-Sea, Feb 21, 2020: A group of 35 nuns and priests who represent the congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary working in Asia met together in Gopalpur, Odisha, Eastern India, to plan out their priorities for the mission.

The Feb 5-10 meeting vowed to foster family ministries beyond borders. This entails reaching out to families crossing the boundaries of culture, philosophy, language and belief with love, compassion and recognition.

Bonie Payong, an organizer of the meeting, in his keynote address said, “The priority to build strong families comes in light with ‘Amoris Laetitia’ (The joy of love), a post-synodal apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis.”

“The apostolic exhortation is mainly a document that reflects on family life and encourages families. But it is also the pope’s reminder that the church must help families of every sort, and people in every state of life, know that, even in their imperfections, they are loved by God and can help others experience that love,” the Sacred Heart priest added.

The participants agreed to make their mission commitment to foster families as Asian countries continue to face similar challenges regarding broken families, abused children, single parents, gender-based discrimination, addiction to drug and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, Que).

The main charism of the Sacred Hearts congregation is to spread God’s love, compassion, and mercy.

“For us, it implies to go out and find those who live in pain. To let us be touched by their vulnerability as our conversion to the mission,” said Derek Laveely, the general councilor of the congregation.

On the final day, the meeting passed a resolution “We sisters and brothers in Asia-Pacific-French Polynesia commit to foster family ministries beyond boarders in collaboration with Secular Branch.”

To implement this proposal, the participants suggested visiting families in the neighborhood especially the poor and vulnerable ones regularly witnessing the congregation’s charism of love, compassion and mercy.

They would welcome every sort of family, every state of individuals to their communities, parishes and institutions and help them experience God’s love.

The congregation members are to understand and accompany individuals and families in all their complex problems.

The priests and nuns are to help them find solutions to their issues through counseling, provide guidance through networking with the local church and other groups working to build families.

The congregation’s members are to provide sex education to children and youth to understand sex within the “broader framework of an education for love and mutual self-giving”. It is also to help the youngsters to accept their original sexual identity.

They are to promote women empowerment programs among the rural women, form women group for caring for our common home (earth) and provide respectful pastoral guidance to lesbians, gays and others.

The congregation is to identify and send competent nuns and priests for specialization in Psycho-Spiritual Counseling needed for the family ministries.

The participants were nuns and priests from Indonesia, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, and French-Polynesia.

The meeting was held for the first time in India.

Ajith Kumar Dass, the regional superior of the priests in India, in his opening remark, said, “It is a unique privilege for Indian Sacred Hearts members to host the gathering of Asian Ministry Seminar 2020.”

The Assembly unanimously agreed to meet once in three years for similar training programs.