By I P Sarto
Burdwan, Sept 12, 2025: A group of lay people joined priests and nuns serving the West Bengal-Sikkim region of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India to resolve to become missionary disciples of Jesus Christ.
Father Raju Mathew, associate secretary of the conference’s Proclamation Commission and a member of the Bhopal-based Koinonia Community of St. John the Baptist, inspired the group to become missionaries by explaining the core message of St. Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi (In proclaiming the Gospel).
The December 8, 1975, document, published at the tenth anniversary of Vatican II, stressed the importance of proclamation by all Christians.
The September 10-12 training program, organized by the commission, saw the participation of 44 lay people, priests and nuns from eight dioceses of the region.
The training was held at Chetana Ashram, West Bengal’s Burdwan, some 120 km north of Kolkata, the state capital.
Explaining the relevance of the document in today’s missionary context, Father Mathew said, “The Church exists to evangelize. We, as the body of the Church, are missionaries by our baptism and existence.”
Through various group dynamics and power point presentation, Father Mathew, explained how every baptized Christian is called to be messengers of the Good News.
Quoting from the Bible and various Church documents, he invited the participants to become pilgrims of hope. “Today we need to journey together in synodal mission in the world affected by various forms of disaster and violence,” Father Mathew said.
The priest also invited them to celebrate Mission Sunday meaningfully. He briefed about the history of establishment of Mission Sunday in 1926 by Pope Pius XI and its universal commitment.
Encounter with Christ personally is essential for a missionary disciple, said Father Mathew. He also explained the kerygma (proclamation of the Christian faith) of Jesus and kerygma of the Apostles and stressed the need for missionaries to elaborate the stages of kerygma in their proclamation.
The Church need to shift from dogmas to personal witness as a first step in our catechesis, he elaborated with various examples.
The participants have resolved to become proclaimers of the Gospel in the region.
Emeritus Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, who celebrated the opening Mass along with 15 priests, urged the participants to become evangelizers in their neighborhood. Quoting from the life of the new millennium saint Carlo Acutis, Bishop Lobo asked the participants to use social media effectively for proclamation.
Father Peter Lingdamo, secretary of the commission’s West Bengal-Sikkim region, stressed the need for Christians to share the good news in the context of the bad news.
“Today many have bad news, thus we need to present the Good News with all people whom we encounter in our life. This is a great eye opening and enlightening session for all,” he asserted.
Bishop Stephen Lepcha of Darjeeling, the regional chairperson of the commission, asserted the need for gaining personal experience of Christ to become genuine messengers of the Gospel,
“We need to form a proclamation team in every diocese,” he said and added, “The trained proclamation team could visit the parishes to motivate the Catholics to understand their missionary responsibility.”
Rajen Bannerjee, a lay evangelist from Darjeeling diocese who shared his personal faith experience, stressed the need for personal prayer and Bible reading to become genuine missionaries.