Proclamation

National Director’s Message – Education for the formation of the Heart

This was the period when General Elections to assemble people’s representatives to the Lok Sabha (Parliament) was in progress. It was also the beginning of the Academic Year in many Colleges. Highlighting them as events that found for us new leaders, our National Director stressed the need for the right formation of the heart of individuals in order to make good leaders. In his message which rested on invaluable education as ‘an important mission of the Church in formation’ he urged for those involved in the field of education to form students to be people of good will and character. Using Gravissium Educationis for reference, he explained further how the formation of a person takes place through education.

Some of the articles included the message of Pope Francis for World Day of Vocations titled ‘Courage to take risk for God’s promise,’ his Apostolic Letter in the form of a Motu Proprio on the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons titled ‘Vatican Guidelines for Protection of Minors’ and an article with excerpts from Chapters in his document on the youth, Christus vivit, titled ‘Pope Francis calls for a listening Church.’

We included an article by Edward Pentin titled ‘Benedict XVI on sex-abuse crisis’ which was his analysis on the Pope Emeritus’ lengthy essay on clerical sex abuse. The Sacrament of Matrimony was explained at length by Fr Dr S Joseph Lionel concentrating on its Historical Developments. Part III to our Scripture Reading help ‘Why and How’ by Fr Ralph da Costa SJ was continued in this edition.

Saints to inspire children were St Andrew Bobola and St Germaine Cousin. Bible Quiz and a story titled ‘The Atonement’ by Ludwig von Gerdtell were meant for enhancing their education. Other features like the News Round-up, Holy Father’s Prayer Intentions continued.

As preparations for the Extraordinary Missionary Month (EMM) October 2019 was already underway, we included basic educational inputs from the official Vatican website on the inner-side of the cover pages. We had also opened a page on our website to add particularly, updates on EMM from across our nation.