the goan I network
PANAJI
The Church of Our Lady Mother of the Poor at Tilamola-Quepem was a befitting location for Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao on Sunday to release his Pastoral Letter 2018-19, focused on alleviating poverty in its various forms and basing itself on the preferential love of Jesus and of His Church for the poor.
The Archbishop’s Pastoral Letter, which is issued at the beginning of each Pastoral Year (June 1 to May 31) in the archdiocese, is a key document as it influences the themes of various events and activities in the archdiocese during the pastoral year.
Following a tradition he began on the first year of his ministry as head of the Catholic church in Goa and Daman, Archbishop Ferrao released his 15th Pastoral Letter addressed to the priests, religious, lay faithful and people of good will in the archdiocese, at a meaningful ceremony in the Church at Tilamola.
According to a press note issued by the Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media (DCSCM), the pastoral letter addresses mainly the problem of poverty faced by the world, the country and this Archdiocese and tries to suggest ways and means of meeting it at various levels: personal, societal and spiritual.
Basing itself on the preferential love of Jesus and of His Church for the poor, the letter is titled after the solemn Proclamation of Jesus Christ at the beginning of his public ministry, “(God) has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.”
In his introduction, the archbishop reminded that the last pastoral letter (2017-2018) called the Catholic faithful and the people of good will alike to some important social responsibilities and expressed satisfaction that the Church in Goa had fulfilled many of them.
This pastoral year is being focussed on alleviating poverty in its various forms, economic as well as emotional poverty, arising from rejection, humiliation and abuse, not forgetting those who are ostracised by society for various reasons like lack of education, old age, sickness, unemployment, imprisonment and other types of social discrimination.
The pastoral letter was released at the end of a Mass presided over by the Archbishop, where 156 young Catholics received the Sacrament of Confirmation. A copy of the Letter was symbolically handed over by the Archbishop to some representative members of the Church in Goa, including Director of the Diocesan Pastoral Secretariat Fr Leonardo Sousa, local Parish Priest Fr Amandio Valadares (who also represented parish priests and deans), Director of Caritas-Goa Fr Maverick Fernandes, Moderator of Diocesan Pastoral Council Celso Fernandes, President of Central Council of the Society of St Vincent de Paul Amancio Fernandes, Sr Heather Aranha, FC (representative of the Religious), local headmistress Elsa Dias (representing educational institutions), local parish council moderator, Agnelo Sousa (representing all PC moderators), Meena Vaz, a local youth representing the diocesan youth and a Self-Help group leader Cirila Fernandes.
