Church leaders in India decide to streamline country's evangelization

Published: 2007-03-14

BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- Church leaders participating in the first national convention on missionary work in India have decided to streamline the country's evangelization efforts and to share resources among the country's Catholic rites. Convention participants, who included national diocesan directors of the Society of St. Peter Apostle and Indian seminary rectors, adopted a 10-point plan to create a national missionary policy. The pontifical missionary society, which is headed by the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, supports the formation of seminarians and novices with particular focus on the formation of indigenous peoples. A statement from the March 8-9 convention, which was organized by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, said that "the dioceses will accept a dimension of the universal church and not get bogged down by parochialism." A National Mission Congress will be held next year to determine how resources will be shared among India's Latin-rite, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Catholic churches, it said.

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