RSSVAILANKANNI, India (UCAN) – Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect for the Congregation for Clergy, today [Feb. 9] opened the first national congress of Catholic priests in India.
About 800 priests and many bishops from the country’s three ritual Churches are attending the three-day congress at Vailankanni, a costal village in Tamil Nadu state that holds India’s most famed Marian shrine.
The celebrants filled the church to such a degree that only about 300 other people could participate in the Mass. Several local residents said they had never seen so many priests and Church dignitaries together.
Monsignor Chibuike Onyeaghala, Charge d’Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature in New Delhi, also joined the program. India’s last nuncio Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana was transferred to Canada in January.
Archbishop Albert D’Souza, chairperson of the Commission for Clergy of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (Latin Rite) had requested India’s 164 dioceses to send six priests, including one from a Religious congregation, to the congress.
Although the program is convened by the Latin rite, priests from the other two Oriental rites, the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches, are attending the program.
The Latin rite follows the Roman liturgy introduced by European missioners in the 15th century, while the two Oriental rites follow Syrian Church traditions and trace their origins to Saint Thomas the Apostle. Rivalry and misunderstanding often mark their relations.
Cardinal Hummes opened the congress lighting the kuthu vilakku, the traditional Indian lamp used for inaugural functions. The Vatican official commended the Indian Church for organizing such a program in the Year for Priests.
The cardinal also said that when he mentioned to the Pope about his journey to India, the Pontiff asked him to convey his apostolic blessings to the participants.
Archbishop A. M. Chinnappa, president of the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council, Bishop M. Devadass Ambrose of Thanjavur and several political and social leaders attended the opening program.
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