ASC TIDINGS, Vol. 6, No. 2, April 2018

Quartely Journal from Alberione Spirituality Centre, Bangalore, India.

The meeting of Telugu Catholic Bishops’ Conference (TCBC) of Catechetical Commission for Telugu Region was held at the Pastoral Centre, Vijayawada on 14 February 2018. Rt Rev. Gallela Prasad, the Bishop of Kadapa, and the Chairman of the Catechetical Commission for TCBC, in his address to the Directors of Pastoral Centers of the Telugu region exhorted the need to impart profound catechetical knowledge to the children from class 1 to 10 in all schools and Parishes. He made it mandatory that the Directors use the new Catechism series in their respective dioceses. He expressed his satisfaction and thanked ST PAULS, Mumbai, especially Fr David Pushpa Raj ssp, for taking up the Diocese’s unattended challenge (for 9 years) to bring out a Catechism and Moral Science series in an international standard, both in English and Telugu. Fr Saji Antony, the director of Jeevandhara Publications, and Fr David Pushpa Raj the coordinator of the Catechism series were present for the meeting. Rt Rev. Gallela Prasad released the Catechism series and gave first copies to Fr Dumingo, the General Secretary of the National Catechetical Commission (CBCI) and to Fr Prasad, the Secretary of the Catechetical commission of TCBC.

Fr David in his address thanked Bishop Gallela Prasad, the Chairman of the Catechetical Commission, and TCBC for giving ST PAULS an opportunity to partner in the mission of TCBC and for the trust the Commission had on ST PAULS.

After the launch, Fr Dumingo, the General Secretary of the National Catechetical Commission, under CBCI, expressed his personal appreciation and satisfaction for the efforts ST PAULS has put in for the Catechism series. He cordially invited ST PAULS to be part of the Catechetical Executive Body of India, in order to help them in their Catechetical work.

All pastoral centre Directors too highly appreciated the final outcome of the books and have promised to send their respective orders for the books at the earliest. The meeting was concluded with a grand lunch in honour of the achievement. Post lunch some of the Directors visited our local formation community at Enikepadu for a high tea.

26^th February 2018- Today, we officially launched our institute App’ STPAULSICE’, giving students and their parents easy access to all information regarding media education programmes. The App includes news and events updates, programme detail with course syllabus, amongst other information, to enhance our outreach to our student community.

Fr (Dr) Dominic D’Silva, SSP, Director at St Pauls Institute of Communication Education, said “I am so pleased we can now offer this App to our students. The philosophy of media education is our mission, as we want to enrich human value in areas of communication and technology. The App is an example of how we want to extend our outreach with the student community, through modern technology and latest means of communication.”

Fr Joby Mathew, SSP, the General Editor, St Pauls/BYB, the Guest of Honour, inaugurated the programme and officially released the App. He spoke to the student and staff groups in attendance, advising them on the critical aspects of building personal connections and communication with audiences, at the same time, how to make use of advanced technology to reach out to many. Case in point- the App, which was released today.

Fr Sebastian Thomas, SSP, Director General of Apostolate spoke to the audience about the upcoming exclusive STUDENTS LOGIN SECTION, which will give our students more specific performance related information, to help them during their time, here at St Pauls. This login will provide students classroom updates, attendance, timetables and other notices, working like a notice board in the palm of your hand’.

Fr Francis Xavier, SSP, the Asst. Director led the launch programme.

A big thank you to the management team for expediting this App for the institute, Prasanna and his team from our technology partners who worked at creating this App, our staff for their insights, reviews and incorporating suggestions, while creating the App and the content.

I hope you use the App frequently for any information you seek regarding the institute.

The STPAULSICE App, available exclusively and free to all our students, can be used on Android devices. Look out for STPAULSICE on GOOGLE PLAYSTORE. A version for the iOS App store will also be made available soon.

The Council for Apostolate Meets

The newly constituted Council for Apostolate of the Province had its first meeting on 14^th and 15^thof February, 2018, at St Pauls Provincialate, Mumbai. Frs Sebastian Thomas (Director General of Apostolate), Prithvi Raj, Saju George, Anish Antony, Dominic D’Silva, Joby Mathew and David Pushpa Raj were present for the meeting.

At the outset, Fr D’Silva, the Provincial Councillor for the Apostolate, animated the members by sharing the vision of the Provincial Team, together with the valuable resources from the General Government and other relevant documents.

The Council discussed on several points outlined in the Documents of the XVII Provincial Chapter. Along with a selected team of Directors, the Council also reviewed a new software aimed at streamlining all our activities: Editorial, Production, Marketing, Sales, Book Centres and financial administration.