MUMBAI (INDIA)
Crux
January 12, 2019
By Nirmala Carvalho
In a “dynamic and fast-changing” society, the Church in India must embrace “flexibility” in pastoral ministry, according to one bishop in the country.
“Evangelization demands creativity and innovation. God is ever new and ancient,” said Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona at the beginning of this week’s plenary meeting of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI).
(The CCBI is the National Episcopal Conference for the Latin rite Catholics, while the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, or CBCI, is the national conference including all the country’s bishops, including those belonging to the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara eastern rites.)
The theme of the Jan. 7-14 meeting in Chennai is “The Joy of the Gospel” based on Pope Francis’s 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. They have been looking at developing action plans to revitalize the outreach of the Church in India at the diocesan and parish level.
Although considered one of the most religious countries in the world, Dabre said the same secularizing tendency which has affected Western countries is also happening in India.
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