The Second Meeting of the English
Academy 2013-14 was held on 13th September 2013 in the Allen Audio
Visual Hall at 10.40 am. Rev. Dr. Susai Manickam was Chair Person of the day,
on the theme “Encyclical of Pope Francis, ‘Lumen Fidei’ – The Light of Faith.
Rev. Patrick Walsh SJ (Rector), Mrs. (Dr.) Ruma Roy (Prof. Pauline Letters),
Rev. Fr. Alphonso Francis (Moderator), Rev. Fr. Sebastian Rodrigues along with
the Theology students were present.
Abraham, (President, English
Academy) began the session with a short prayer and welcomed all present, very specially
The Chair Person and the II years Theology Students presenting the Paper. N.
Tileswar read the report of the last English Academy held on 23rd
August 2013 and it was passed unanimously. Rev. Alphonso Francis thanked the
secretary for the heartfelt service and announced Joseph Roy OCD as the new
Secretary for the English Academy. Rev. Dr. Susai Manickam expressed his
happiness and congratulated the students for the effort in taking the
Encyclical for the discussion in a short period. He also welcomed the group to
present the Encyclical.
M. Sebastian VC gave an
introduction about our New Pope Francis and the Encyclical, The Light of Faith.
Alphonse Sesuraj and E. Anseldius in a systematic and clear manner spoke on the
first chapter- Abraham our Father of Faith. He said that faith is our response to the Word which engages us personally and gave the
different aspects of faith in the based on the life of Mosses and Israel.
Salvation by faith and the Ecclesial form of Faith.
Arockiya Prabakar and Britto Rudalf explained the next section “Unless
You Believe You will not understand”. They tried to give the essentials of
Faith, Truth and Love and that our Faith is based on truth. Faith understands
and knows the reality. They also spoke about Faith and Reason as well as Faith
and Theology. Theology is a participation of the God’s Knowledge.
M. Susil and D. Sushil presented the third chapter - I Believed and so I
Spoke. In this chapter they focused on the Communion with the Person of Jesus
that is I and Thou and We and Thou. Faith is open to the “We” of the Church. They
also explained the Sacrament and the transmission of Faith.
Speaking on the fourth
chapter Michael GS CMF and Lepcha Jonash gave a brief explanation about the human
Relationship and that men and women cannot have a true brotherhood without a
common father. That Faith is
not only presented as a journey, but also as a process of building, the
preparing of a place in which human beings can dwell together with one another.
Karu
S. Kumar said that in Mary is fulfilled the long history of faith and in her own life; Mary
completed the pilgrimage of faith. All the speeches were synthesized and made
available to the audience in the form of power point.
The Chair Person Rev. Dr. Susai Manickem appreciated
the presentation and commended that the brothers prepared very well he encouraged
the students to read the document in its entirety and add reflections to it.
The Chairperson said that the encyclical holds a unique
place in a sense that Pope Francis is the first Pope to publish the encyclical
with one year of his Pontificate and also that two living popes had done the
work for the encyclical. Comments and questions were invited from the floor
during the time allotted for discussion of the topic. The moderator synthesized
the entire proceedings by stating that we need to be inspired by the life the
Pope, he said we need ‘Humility of his action and the ministry of continuity’ in
our day to day life.
Rev. Fr. Alphonso gave a vote of thanks to the Chair
Person, Rector and those who present. The programme ended at 12.35 p.m. with the
Prayer to the Mother of our Faith.
Joseph Roy OCD,Secretary
