Bengaluru: The Latin-Rite dioceses of India will mark “Communio India” Sunday on November 29 (first Sunday of Advent) with the theme “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13: 34).
“This year we observe Communio India Sunday amidst the suffering and the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the missionary journey of the whole Church continues, despite all the challenges facing us, because the Risen Lord accompanies us on our way,” said Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrão, President of Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India (CCBI).
“Communio India” is an initiative of the CCBI to assist all Dioceses and Religious Congregations working in rural and mission areas, in their pastoral ministry, said Fr Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary general.
The resources generated by Catholics will be used for poor communities in many parts of the country.
“The aims of “Communio India” are to assist dioceses and religious congregations working in the missions; to build a culture of sharing among our people to express solidarity with the needy,” said Archbishop Ferrão.
It would encourage Catholics to pray and help the missions and the missionaries and to promote missionary vocations and to inspire the laity to work in mission areas as lay missionaries. This is to prepare all Catholics as missionary disciples envisaged by Pope Francis in “Evangelii Gaudium” (Joy of the Gospel). It is a 2013 apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis on the church’s mission of evangelization in the modern world.
The Communio India was inaugurated during the 29 CCBI Plenary held in Bhopal in 2017.
“Communio India Sunday” will be celebrated in 132 dioceses of the Latin Catholic Church in India. There are 190 bishops, 564 religious congregations and 21,018 priests who work in 9,294 parishes. The Catholic population in these dioceses is 16,107,086.