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Circular 05/2025

Nashik Catholic Diocese

February 01, 2025


My dear Collaborators,

 

Greetings from XIM University International Centre, Bhubaneshwar. A total of 204 delegates, including the CCBI Commission Secretaries and special invitees are participating in the 36th Plenary Assembly, reflecting on the theme, “Discerning Synodal Pathways for Mission”. We will be attending the meeting till February 04 lunch time, following which some of the Bishops will visit Kandhamal where 35 people were killed in the 2008 Christian persecution in the remote jungle district of the Eastern Odisha State. You will be happy to note that the Vatican has initiated the beatification process for the 35 Catholic martyrs of Kandhamal.

 

I am writing to thank you sincerely for all that you are doing in your parishes and institutions. Your cheerful ministry is definitely a sign of God’s loving presence among HIS people, and I am very confident that the Lord is blessing HIS people with peace, joy and love. Thank you for your presence during the January clergy meeting: some of you remarked to me that the presentation of the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 was beneficial and I am sure and certain that you will organize various programmes at the parish level for children, youth, adults, married couples, widows/widowers, senior citizens and other groups of our faithful in the parishes. Please take the help of the Parish Pastoral Council members and see how best you can make the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 an occasion to CELEBRATE Hope in Jesus, Church and Community.

 

The Pilgrim Cross which we blessed on the occasion of the inauguration of the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 is visiting the parishes. I have already received news of the immense joy that our people and you, my dear collaborators, are experiencing innumerable blessings in your life. Praise God. Please ensure that you organize Prayer Services for different sections of your parish community. I believe that JESUS will most certainly inspire us to experience HOPE in our lives particularly in those times when we are struggling and have reached the end of the road, not knowing where to go. It is my firm belief that Jesus will accompany us and help us to experience immense joy in our lives. When the pilgrim cross is in your parish, please sit in front of the Cross and pray: may we become channels of God’s bountiful blessings to the people we minister to in our day to day lives.

 

I have been repeatedly informing you to visit your parishioners in a systematic manner. Visiting is one of our means by which we will be able to identify who are the ones in our parish who are suffering: children, youth, adults, etc. You will agree with me that Jesus made it a point to visit HIS people, particularly the sick and the distressed. He healed them and brought immense joy into their lives. As followers and chosen disciples of the Lord Jesus, may we strive to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, our Lord and Master and visit our parishioners so that they too experience the joy of the Lord Jesus in their lives. It would be nice if the Religious Women in the parishes also make it a point to visit the families in the Small Christian Communities regularly. May the celebration of the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 inspire us to visit the sick, disadvantaged and other people who are experiencing hopeless situations in their lives and through our pastoral visitation, may our people experience HOPE amidst the hopeless situations they encounter in their lives. This is a real and concrete way in which we can bring the HOPE of Jesus to our people.

 

We have begun a new calendar year 2025 and one month has passed by. Could we strengthen the Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in our parishes during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025? It is my joy to see that our SCCs flourish in our parishes and our Diocese becomes a reflection of God’s Kingdom on earth where all of us live as one united and caring family; where no one is left out, but all of us journey together in a spirit of communion, participation and mission. May each one of us strive to become a synodal church: that is my prayer for each one of us in the Diocese. For those who need assistance in strengthening the SCCs, please contact Fr Vishal Tribhuvan, Parish Priest, Holy Family Church, Kopergaon and Director of SCCs in the Diocese.

 

As we journey ahead during the month, we celebrate the Day of Consecrated Life tomorrow, Sunday, February 02. During our prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist, could we pray for our collaborators, the religious men and women ministering to the people in our parishes so that each one of us strives to work together in the spirit of synodality. We thank God for the gift of our religious men and women and pray that the Lord may continue to bless them and use them for the growth of our Diocese, today and always. Please include an intention in tomorrow’s Prayer of the Faithful inviting our people to pray for the Religious Men and Women of our Diocese. Enclosed, please find some reflections of Pope Francis to the Religious Men and Women on the occasion of the 28th World Day for Consecrated Life.

 

A little later, we will be celebrating the World Day of the Sick on Monday, February 11, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. Time and time again, Pope Francis has stressed that the sick, the fragile and the poor must be at the heart of the Church and at the centre of our pastoral concerns. The World Day of the Sick offers us another opportunity to pray for all those who suffer and to reflect on our commitment towards them. Could we try ways and means in bringing happiness in the lives of our brothers and sisters who are sick and cannot come to Church for Mass?

 

As I conclude these lines, I thank you for your presence in our Diocese. As mentioned to you earlier, you play an important role in the functioning of our Diocese. You are the silent men and women who are collaborating with me to take the Diocese onward and forward. May the Good Lord continue to accompany us and bless us always.

 

With every good wish,

 

Yours in Christ,


Barthol Barretto Bishop, Diocese of Nashik

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