Bhopal: Archbishop Leo Cornelio of Bhopal Thursday urged his people to become real messengers of peace to protect society from the challenges of divisive forces.
According to him, unconstitutional elements were challenging the unity and sovereignty of the nation.
The prelate said this at the concluding session of the two-day meeting of Catholic Conference of Madhya Pradesh (CCMP) held at the Pastoral Centre.
All the Catholic bishops of the central Indian state and other church representatives participated. The focus of the meeting was “In growing environment of violence and unrest, a challenge to become a messenger of peace.”
Reflecting upon the theme, all the participants emphasized to live their life more effectively inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ, so that by their lives and services they could make a better and peaceful society. They also committed to bring more dedication in their services through education, health and other social services.
Jesus Christ offered entire life for the service of poor, weak and marginalized to raise them to respectable life. He worked to bring unity and equality of all and the same he taught to his followers. His greatest commandment is to ‘love one another as yourself.’
The archbishop said,” Today in society, communal forces and antisocial elements for their vested interests are trying to divide the society on the basis of religion, cast, color and language. We need to come together and face these challenges. We need to protect the society from these divisive and unconstitutional elements to keep up the unity and sovereignty of our country. Such an environment challenges us to become real messengers of peace”.
In this context Pope Francis in his recently published encyclical, “Laudato si” says that we all are children of God. God as our father we are all brothers and sisters. ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ is our family. We all need to live in fraternity and peace. Stressing on environment Pope Francis makes us aware of our responsibility towards the mother earth. God has created the earth for our benefit and she takes care for our life and its sustenance. We need to protect her and not destroy. Till now man has exploited the earth for his selfish interest and its dangerous implications are before us. Therefore it is wake up call for all of us.
Mahatma Gandhi says, “The world has enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed”.s