By Purushottam Nayak
Sambalpur, Sept 20, 2020: The Church in Odisha has organized a webinar to help its people to share their concern, hopes and aspiration in a world beyond the coronavirus pandemic.
Priests, nuns and lay people attended the September 19 webinar on “Covid-19 and Beyond: A Christian Reflection.”
The organizers claimed the program aimed to encourage Catholics to get involved in society and go ahead with the current workds.
About 400 people participated in the webinar organized by the Odisha bishops’ commission for vocations, seminary, clergy and religious.
Panellists included Salesian Father Joe Mannath, national secretary of the Conference of Religious India, Divine Word Father S.M. Michael of Mumbai, Sheena Durairaj, Pune, and Sandeep Pattnaik, a ribal Activist in Bhubaneswar, the Odisha state capital.
The bishops of Odisha, some priests, and nuns shared their experience during pandemic and lockdown and sought guidance for future action.
“We must strengthen our mental, psychological, spiritual health in this time of corona pandemic. Realization of one’s own ability, fear, anger and mental stress should be focused. Privileged should be sensitive to the needs of the underprivileged,” said Durairaj.
The lay woman, who spoke first, urged the participants to avoid hyper tension. “We must not be either over active or remain idle. Confession is a good way of psychological and mental healing. Let us develop our bond with our families psychologically and emotionally. Priests and religious need for transformation in the society,” she added.
She also encouraged the priests and nuns to remain spiritually and psychologically connected with each other and with God.
Father Mannath pointed out that worst pandemic than the coronavirus had happened in the past. “This pandemic has affected rich and poor in the worldwide. We have a huge difference between the states in India. More than the pandemic people are affected with joblessness and insecurity,” the Salesian priest explained.
For Mannath the positive aspect of the pandemic included the improvement of air quality because of less movement of the people and vehicles. There is a simple Information and guidelines of using mask, sanitization and maintaining social distance in this corona pandemic.
“The Church is fully involved in various ways in this corona pandemic. Marriage expenses have come down due to the rule on social distancing. There is new technology of webinar and other online education system,” the CRI official explained.
He urged people to make use of social media to create awareness for social distancing. “We should not be limited by daily prayer and timetable of our religious life. We must go out and help the people. Let us avoid false spirituality having enough prudence in our approach. Let us be model to the people in this corona pandemic,” Father Mannath added.
Bishop Niranjan Sualsingh of Sambalpur, the organizer of the webinar, said it was held for spiritual closeness, encouragement and mutual support among Catholics during the pandemic. It also wanted people look beyond the pandemic and witness Christ through their lives and ministry with renewed vigor, he added.