Team Herald
OLD GOA: Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the main celebrant of the high Mass for the feast of St Francis Xavier at the Basilica De Bom Jesus, was deeply moved by the religious celebration attended by nearly 10,000 devotees. As the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation at the Vatican, he was impressed with the religious fervour of the Goans gathered for the feast day Mass.
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Tagle, while addressing the gathering, said that before he flew out of Rome a fortnight ago, he had promised the Pope that he would convey the Holy Father’s ‘paternal and filial greetings’ to Goa. “He [Pope Francis] said ‘please do,’” Tagle recounted. “I have fulfilled my promise,” he added.
“Now, I will go back tonight to Rome and report to him that I have seen the fervour of faith and love among the faithful here in the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman and also people outside this territory,” the 67-year-old Filipino Cardinal stated.
Tagle was in Goa not only for the feast day celebration but also for the inauguration of the biennial meeting of the International Societies of Apostolic Life (MISAL) at Pilar, which began on December 2 and will end on December 6.
Earlier, during the MISAL’s cultural programme, Cardinal Tagle, along with Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, the Archbishop of Goa and Daman, and Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the Apostolic Nuncio to India and Nepal, released a book authored by Dr Fr Adrian Fernandes SFX titled ‘The Social Dynamism of Catholic Education with a special reference to India.’
A missionary who has worked in North India, Fr Adrian, with a Ph.D. with summa cum laude in Social Sciences from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, explained the book’s focus on Catholic education.
Dr Sr Dorothy D Souza AC, principal of St Ann’s College of Education (Autonomous) Mangaluru, Karnataka, accompanied the project as an expert in the field.
Hervé Lecomte, the Secretary General from the Office International de l’Enseignement Catholique (OIEC), Rome, acknowledged the book to be “a magnificent contribution in the spirit of Pope Francis’ ‘Global Compact on Education’, since it starts from situations experienced in India and invites us to solidarity.”
The book features a message from Rt Rev Elias Joseph Gonsalves (Archbishop of Nagpur and Chairperson of the CBCI Office of Education and Culture) and a foreword by Fr Mauro Mantovani SDB (Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, Vatican City).
