Be Peace Builders, Cardinal Gracias Tells Youth of Northeast India

GUWAHATI, Assam, Mar. 02, 2010, 10.10 Hrs (CBCI News):

The Bishops of India participating in the 29th bi-annual General Body Meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) at Guwahati joined the Catholic community of the city and delegates from the 15 dioceses of the region, in a concelebrated Eucharist on Sunday, 28 February, at the Don Bosco School grounds in the city.

Presiding over the Eucharistic celebrations, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Vice President of the CBCI, paid rich tribute to the people of Northeast India, particularly the pioneer missionaries who painstakingly laboured and built up the Church in the region. During the final blessing, all the bishops prayed for peace in the region, for families and for young people.

In his homily Cardinal Gracias urged the young people to be rooted in Jesus and draw strength from him, and to be transformed by prayer, Word of God and the Sacraments. The CBCI has been discussing on youth in an emerging India as the theme of the Plenary Assembly. He appealed to the young people to “go out and change the world, to become peace builders, brining about harmony and the values of justice, honesty and selfless concern for others, particularly the poor.” Describing the youth as “our greatest strength”, he said the youth of the region can do much to guide the destiny of the people not only in Northeast India, but in the rest of the country.

Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop Cleemis Mar Baselios and the bishops, several priests from the region concelebrated in the Eucharist. Young people dressed in their traditional costumes danced and sang during the liturgical celebrations. Archbishop Chinnapa Mylapan of Chennai led the community in prayer by playing a prayerful post- communion thanksgiving hymn on the organ.