(ANS – Kochi) – The Indian Catechetical Association (ICA) in its 18th General Body Meeting elected two Salesians, Fr Gilbert Choondal of Bangalore Province (INK), and Fr Cletus D`Souza, of Mumbai Province (INB), to serve the association during the next triennium as two of its top office holders.

ICA held its 18th General Body Meeting at the Pastoral Orientation Centre, Kochi, from 5th to 7th February with “Liturgy and Catechesis” as its central theme. Among the 70 participants there were also two Salesian missionaries from outside the country, one from Fujairah, U.A.E., and the other from Nairobi, Kenya.

The themes of the 18th ICA included liturgy and catechesis, youth liturgy and catechesis, catechesis in the context of new missal, liturgical catechesis in the Syro Malabar church, hymns as catechesis, homily in catechesis, retreat centres and faith formation etc. The days of study were coloured by the Mass celebrated in oriental rites and cultural programmes in the evenings.

During the three day meeting ICA members came together and unanimously re-elected Fr Gilbert Choondal, SDB, as the President of the ICA for a second term ending in 2017. Similarly Fr Cletus Fernandes, SDB was elected unanimously to be Secretary of the association for the same period. Fr Choondal is currently Assistant Director and Programme Coordinator at NBCLC, Bangalore, and Fr D`Souza is temporary Parish Priest in Virar, Mumbai.

The AGM of the ICA was a record breaking one also with regard to the the number of Salesian Family participants in its 18 years of history: 12 SDBs, 3 SMIs and 1 FMA. There were also four Salesians who presented scholarly papers related to the theme “Liturgy and Catechesis”, including Salesian Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong  who gave the Keynote Address on the first day. Fr Choondal, spoke on “Catechesis in the Context of the New Roman Missal”, Fr Jerome Vallabaraj (INM) presented a paper on “Youth Liturgy and Catechesis”, and Fr Varghese Kapplikunnel (INK) presented results and reflections from an empirical study done on the “Significance of Liturgy in Charismatic Retreats for the the Faith Formation of Adults”.

Published on 11/02/2014