33rd General- Meeting of Catholic Bishops in India begins from today

  The 33^rd General Body Meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) will be held at St. John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, from 2^nd to 9^th February, 2018. The General Body Meeting will begin on 2^nd February at 9 a.m. with a solemn Eucharistic Celebration presided over by Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, Apostolic Nuncio to India. Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, will be the Chief Guest at the Inaugural Function and will address the gathering on the theme “How the Church lives Unity in Diversity in Myanmar.” His Excellency  Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore will welcome all the Bishops. His Eminence Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, President of CBCI, will deliver the Presidential Address and preside over the whole General Body Meeting. His Grace Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas will present the Biennial Report of the CBCI for the years 2016 and 2017.

As part of the actual meeting Fr. Francis Gonsalves S.J. will give the Keynote address on the theme. “I am with you always, even to the end of the ages”. United in Diversity for a Mission of Mercy and Witness. Sr. Rekha Chennattu RA & Sr. Renu Silvano OCV will address on “This is to my Father’s Glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. The Catholic Church in India at the Service of the Good News. Prof. K.M. Francis and Mr. Jacob Punnoose (IPS Retd.) will talk on “Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. “The Catholic Church in India, the Harbinger of Hope.” Fr. Barnes Mawrie SDB and Prof. Virginius Xaxa will address on “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. The Catholic Church in India with the Tribal people.”

The Bishops will gather every morning at 6.45 a.m. for the Eucharistic Celebration. On 5th February the Mass will be in the Syro Malankara rite and on 7th February it will be celebrated in the Syro Malabar Rite. In the evenings the prepared will join together in prayer with reflections being offered by spiritual leaders from different Christian denominations. Officers for the various offices of the CBCI will also be elected during the meeting. The CBCI with 174 dioceses, 204 active Bishops and 64 retired Bishops is the fourth largest Catholic Bishops’ Conference in the world.