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On 30th January, a one day workshop on the Topic ‘Revisiting the Pastoral in Vatican II: Trajectories for the Future’ was organized at St. John’s Regional Seminary, Kondadaba, Kothavalasa, Vizianagaram Dt. Andhra Pradesh, as part of its Silver Jubilee Celebrations. The Resource Persons were Fr. Thomas Pallithanam, Director, People’s Action for Rural Awakening (PARA) and Fr. Dr. Thumma Anthoniraj, Deputy Secretary, APBC, Social Activist and Contextual Theologian.
The inaugural address was delivered by the chief guest Prof. Dr A.V. Prasad Rao, Rector, Andhra University, Waltair. He had enriched the participants with profound, reflective and weighty insights on the Vatican II through the prism of The Holy Scripture. The First session titled, “The World as Teacher and the Church as Learner: Towards Praxis – Audit of the Pastoral Visions of Vatican 11” was handled by Dr. Thumma Anthoniraj. It was ably moderated by Dr. N.R Jeevan Babu, Head, Department of French, St. Joseph’s College, Waltair. He mapped his talk from pre-Vatican to Vatican II. He exposed in gist all the 16 documents of the Vatican II from the perspective of their relevance today through a systematic audit. Therefore, Church as a Learner must be always humble enough to learn from the world.
The second session: “Another World is Possible: Thirst for Human Rights as the Beatitude of Pastoral Praxis” was taken by Fr. Thomas Pallithanam and was moderated by Sr Dr Tresa Cherian SAP, former Principal, St Theresa’s College, Eluru. Fr Thomas gave a Clarion call to all the participants in as much as he stressed to move from need based education to right-based education, from convenience to convictions.
The Valedictory address was delivered by Dr. Pothini Krishna Prasad, Prof. of Political Science and Public Administration, Andhra University. He truly challenged every participant to become a sign of the time relevant to the present day contemporary society through his thoughtful yet challenging concluding address. Rev. Fr Dr Jose Maliekal SDB, the Rector welcomed the gathering and Rev. Fr Dr Jose Wilson sdb, proposed the vote of thanks.
Fr Jose Therampil
