A glorious day for the INH province in Rome: Fr Putti Anthaiah and Fr Prakash Maramreddy obtain their M.Th. degrees

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On 13^th June 2017, our dear confreres Fr Putti Anthaiah and Fr Prakash Maramreddy successfully defended their theses at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome. Their intellectual journey which began at UPS two years ago, was aptly crowned with the presentation and approval of their final dissertation papers.

Fr Putti Anthaiah wrote his thesis on the theme of “Community Life and its Relevance in the Formation to Religious Life, with Special Reference to Fraternal Life in Community and the GC XXV Documents of the Salesians of Don Bosco.” Here is a gist of the main arguments of the thesis in Fr Anthaiah’s own words: “Man is social being. He has been living in the community. The Church is essentially a faith community; its members are called to live in communion. The religious are called to live this communion radically in following the teaching of Jesus. In this present time the community life is facing challenges. So the formation of the candidates to be religious in a community is important. The two documents I studied expresses the fact that the community life is formative in itself. A good formation takes place both for initial and ongoing formation in the community”.

Fr Prakash Maramreddy’s thesis title was “The Integral Spiritual Formation of the Young with a Special Reference to the Catholic Institutes of Learning in Telugu Speaking Regions of South India.” Fr Prakash situates the thesis well in his own words below:

“The situation today poses many spiritual and moral dangers for the young people in choosing the right path for their future and to have a commitment in following Christ. One of the main focuses of Don Bosco’s teachings and formation of the young people was spiritual formation, which is testified by his statement ‘to be responsible citizens and good Christians’. As it was during his time, so also today the spiritual formation of the young people should be geared towards the same goal, to be honest citizens and good Christians. The present situation in the Telugu speaking regions of South India or rather in all of India is to produce ‘academic giants and spiritual nothingness’. The newness of my study consists in exploring the possibilities of adapting the current trends and renewing formation methods in such a way as to bring back the lost spirit and reach out to more youth in their spiritual formation, thus encouraging them to work towards social and national integrity in India.”