GOA MISSION CONGRESS
REPORT OF THE MEETING FOR FOLLOW-UP
(March 5, 2009)

By Fr. Saturnino Dias

A Meeting on “Goa Mission Congress” was held on March 5, 2009 at the Archbishop’s House, Panjim, called especially to work out a plan for a proper follow-up and missionary revival in Goa. It began with the singing of the Theme Song of the Mission Congress.
The Archbishop welcomed the 28 participants representing the key institutions of the Archdiocese. He appreciated and thanked Fr. Saturnino Dias and the Executive and Core Committees for their hard work and dedicated collaboration to make the Goa Mission Congress successful. He said, Fr. Saturnino’s past experience in organizing the Asian Mission Congress must have certainly helped to achieve such success within a very short time.

Fr. Saturnino then spoke about the purpose of this meeting. He said that the Church in Goa needs to capitalize on the enthusiasm generated by the Goa Mission Congress and move forward reviving the missionary spirit throughout the Church in Goa, as Goa was the centre of irradiation of faith in the whole of East in the past. He reminded that our Archdiocese had jurisdiction from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to the Far East Japan and on account of the missionary work it was doing was known as the “Rome of the East”. He said that we must utilize the momentum gained by the Mission Congress to re-generate that spirit and bring Goa back to the centre stage of mission work. This is why, he said, he had invited for this meeting with the consent of the Archbishop all the Episcopal Vicars, Heads or Executive Secretaries of the various diocesan Centres and Commissions or Committees, Rectors of the Seminaries, President of the CRI (Goa), Generals of the diocesan religious Congregations, together with the members of the Executive and Core Committees of the Mission Congress.
Taking the first point of the agenda, he asked how was the preparation of the people, of the priests and religious for the Congress. He said that we should take this question objectively with the intention of learning for follow-up and for future activities of the Church in Goa.
The House felt that the people were not sufficiently prepared and in a few places they were not even aware of the Mission Congress, though there were reasons for the same, like the overall time given for preparation was short and the parishes were busy preparing for Christmas and other activities. Also there was some confusion in the minds of the Priests regarding the titles “Goa Mission Congress” and “Devachea Mogacho Somarombh”, since there was no “clear link” between the two. Though the Konkani title was chosen to avoid the misleading connotations of the words ‘Mission’ and ‘Congress’, perhaps more effort should have been made to explain further what was intended by the Konkani title. It was also felt that while many priests had worked hard, a good number of priests had not bothered much to give it the necessary time and attention and some did not even convey to their parishioners the message contained in the Circular of the Archbishop published in the diocesan pastoral bulletin Renewal (Renovação), even after they were reminded of the same through personal phone calls. Further, it was observed that very few Deans participated in the Congress though all of them had been especially invited. A comment was made that this happens also with other events of the diocese and, as a result, much of the efforts made by the organizers go wasted. Hence, we need to think on how in future we can get everyone involved and interested and collaborating so that all the people of God in Goa participate and get enriched by such events.
The Archbishop informed the House that during the preparation for the Synod of Goa, the Organizers were struggling in the 1st year. It took six months to clear only the doubts from the minds of the people. If people had a question about this Diocesan event, it was concerning lack of time for proper preparation.
Some members suggested that we could organize similar event at the Parish or Deanery level. Fr. Saturnino disclosed that the delegates of the Mission Congress have also suggested that we have similar Congress every year at diocesan level and at parish/deanery level in preparation for the same.
Some members felt that the Message should have given more content of the experiences shared and of our experience during the three days, before the three paragraphs of resolutions that we intend to implement so that these could be better appreciated. The experiences of the people were very convincing and showed that Jesus is working very powerfully.
Introducing the next point of the agenda: “How are the salient features of the Message to be met in your individual life/ community life/ institution and organization?” Fr. Saturnino said that initially we experience the love of God in our families. Families are the first teachers of the love of God and of neighbor. Hence families have to be witnesses to both these dimensions: the love experienced in the families is to be nurtured by both the families and the schools and other educational institutions as these take the very important subsidiary role in the education and over-all formation of children to become mature men and women who will guide the destinies of the nation and the Church in due time. In this context, he said that the mission of the Church is to prepare committed apostles and servants of the love of God through our educational institutions beginning with the initial programme of Kinder Garden (KG) and in a special way through the Seminaries and Formation Houses. He reminded that the love celebrated at the Mission Congress and echoed in the Message is the redemptive Love with its dual characteristics of self emptying and life giving resulting in service and reconciliation. Keeping this in mind, he said, we ask ourselves: How do we make present or witness to the redemptive love in our individual/personal life, family life, community life and institutional/organizational life? How to proclaim it?
During the discussion it was admitted that most of our schools today are result oriented and the value education and the imparting of Gospel values to our Catholic children, which was the reason for their establishment, is vanishing. On the other hand, the tuition mania is making our students totally dependent on the teachers who seem to be more interested on additional money for themselves rather than the overall growth of the students. Thus the initiative and creativity on the part of the students and their ability to think freely and independently is seriously curtailed. They become slaves to readymade questions and answers. Also many teachers do not come across as role models or witnesses of love for the students. In fact, some may appear to be lazy, regular late comers, least bothered about the progress of their students, gossipmongers and greedy. It is a call to re-think and re-build. Mutatis mutandis the same reflection could be made by each centre and institute concerning its own objectives.
A suggestion was made that Seminars could be conducted for the schools and other centres so that their respective heads, collaborators and subordinates may imbibe the spirit of the Mission Message and devise ways and means to be channels of the redemptive love in their chosen profession or activity.
In this context, an observation was made to the fact that witnesses from Other Faiths were very touching and we were proud to hear whatever positive they had to say about us and our institutions; similarly they provided an opportunity for introspection so that we could reflect on the limitations they observed about us so as to improve on them and possibly remove them.
Another observation was that our people should be prepared to accept and interact with people of Other religions and cultures or ethnic background. There seemed to be some reluctance to accommodate the delegates from Daman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Diu in the families of the parishes surrounding the venue of the Mission Congress, because they were non Goans.
Returning to the point of discussion, Fr. Saturnino said that each person present at the meeting represents Pastors, different Centres, Commissions and Institutes or Religious Congregations; so the point for reflection is what each can do as head of the respective institution. Are we satisfied the way we live? – he asked.
The Archbishop said that the experiences shared at the Mission Congress were very touching. He suggested that some kind of reflection could take place at each sector. Each one can think of his own area of action and then share. He said that perhaps the Pastors who had participated can come together and share and discuss how they can make the liturgy more meaningful. Similarly the Heads of the religious Congregations could also come together. Some groups could be formed of the lay persons who participated. We could also take a similar theme for this year and reflect on the formation of youth. A suggestion was made that people should get an experience of live-in and share.
Fr. Remedios Fernandes observed that we have to be people of prayer and suggested that we have to reflect on ourselves if the fire of Jesus is in us because only then we can share it with others.
At this point various suggestions were put forward: that we could have some programme at the parish level for families; that we could meet as Pastors or as lay participants of the Mission Congress at different places and share; that we could meet at deanery level with people only of that deanery and discuss how to replicate this fire in the deanery; that this could be a project at deanery level in preparation for Christmas. Finally it was proposed and decided that the deaneries of South, Central and North Zone bring together the people of their respective areas who participated in the Mission Congress and discuss and plan how they could replicate the Mission Congress theme in their respective areas with the help of these participants associating for the final event also those parishes that did not participate. The final event should lead to Christmas celebration.
It was also decided that the overall responsibility to plan and monitor the follow-up be given to the Diocesan Pastoral Secretariat. Fr. Leonardo Souza could coordinate with the Rector of the Rachol Seminary who is the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) diocesan director and with the Rector of the Pilar Seminary. It was suggested that all the other bodies, Parish Animation Teams (PAT) and Community Animation Teams (CAT), Diocesan Commission for Evangelization could also be involved. The Pastoral Secretariat after meeting the Deans could decide whether the Bishop should send a Circular regarding the follow-up and inform the Bishop, accordingly.
Fr. Lyndon Rodrigues informed that he has fixed a meeting on 23 March to discuss the follow up programme in the Mission of Daman.
Fr. Cristovao Caldeira placed before the House the general headings of the expenditure incurred for the Goa Mission Congress.
Fr. Saturnino informed the House that the organizers of the Regional Mission Congress have given a quota for each diocese to send their delegates for that event to be held at Pilar from 30 April to 3 May 2009, and that Goa can send 60 participants of which 40 will be lay persons. The House suggested that some new participants could be given an opportunity to participate in the Regional Mission Congress.
Fr. Saturnino thanked all the members for their generous contribution in preparing for the Mission Congress.
The Archbishop thanked the Convenor, Fr. Saturnino and all the members of the Executive and Core Committees for the collaboration for the Mission Congress. He also thanked each member present at the meeting. 
The meeting ended with the recitation of the prayer for the Goa Mission Congress.