Delivering his welcome address on the opening day of the XIV National Conference of Diocesan Priests of India (CDPI), Bishop Bala said, “We are proud to be Indians and also to be Christians. We love our mother land and the Church in India.” Bishop Udumala Bala is the Patron of CDPI.
Earlier, the conference began with the Eucharistic celebration, presided over by Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao, vice president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI).
Archbishop Ferrao based his homily on the theme ‘Jesus the Servant Leader’. The archbishop asked the priests to be rooted in Jesus, whose life was a total self-gift of service. The inaugural session was held at 9 am in the Conference Hall.
The session began with a prayer dance performed by the students from the Archdiocese of Goa.
In his keynote address, via video, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of CCBI and Archbishop of Mumbai, said that Pope Francis always loved the poor and the marginalised.
In his felicitation address, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, the Apostolic Nuncio to India, pointed out that every priest is a prototype of Jesus the Eternal Priest. He exhorted the priests to move out to the periphery of the society, where they will meet the poor, marginalised and refugees.
