To live as authentic Christian is a challenge, says CCBI chief

To live as authentic Christians in India "in our own surroundings first, so that we may be impelled to tell this good news to our neighbours, other cultures and other religions in a dialogue of life so that," is a challenge, Archbishop Oswald Gracias, president of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) said.

Addressing the delegates of the National Conference in Preparation of the Indian Mission Congress, at the National Biblical Catechetical Liturgical Center, Bangalore, March 8, Archbishop Gracias said that preaching Christ in season and out of season is the fruit of an evangelical life witness lived by Christians.

"In India, it is a challenge to live as authentic Christians in our own surroundings first, so that we may be impelled to tell this good news to our neighbours, other cultures and other religions in a dialogue of life," he said.

The archbishop presided over the inaugural Eucharistic celebration on the opening day of the national convention for diocesan directors of Pontifical Mission Society, diocesan secretaries for proclamation of CCBI Commission and rectors of major seminaries of India, March 7–9.

Father Jan Dumon, secretary general of the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, Rome, who was a special invitee to the convention, told media persons that it was his maiden visit to India and he was delighted to witness the great progress the Church has made in India.

Dumon, who was also a mission for 16 years in Congo, Africa, said that he was sent by former Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Prefect of the Congregation for Evangelization, Rome, to speak about the objectives of the Pontifical Mission Societies to the leaders of the Church in India.

"The foremost mission of the Church is to build community as in the early Christian times," he said. "And then there is a movement towards the world which is foreign to the Christian community values and faith. This openness to the outside world is a historical sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit who impels us with divine dynamics," he pointed out.

"If a community is a closed house, worried about its own symbols and preoccupied with its own culture and rites then it is not fully open to the Spirit of God," he added.

He said his mission was of a supportive role to assist in the financial solidarity between the Churches. "Do not shy away from seeking help to build the Church," Fr. Dumon said.