Editorial

A Year of Fulfilled Indulgence

Opinion | Editorial | John S. Shilshi | 15-Sep-2021

In our fast moving world, where time flies by so swiftly, twelve months is hardly a period of reckoning. Events or developments that took place a year ago seem as if they happened just the other day, before we realize that much of time had since elapsed. This exactly was the feeling when we realised that the North East Catholic Research Forum (NECARF) is now a year old and the first issue of the NECARF Review saw the light of day on 16^th of September 2020.

Without exaggeration, the last twelve months has been a period of many blessings worth the counts. First of all, the inspired initiative to form a forum of enlightened Catholics of the region, essentially of the Lay people, the willingness of members to spend time and discuss, and ensuring the fructification of the idea itself wouldn’t have been possible without His gracious intervention. Today, we have one hundred and twenty seven knowledgeable and prominent Catholics from all the eight states of our region in one platform, exchanging ideas and opinions as learned people would, also bridging the gap between generations.

We are aware that the Catholic Church has a history of some Lay organisations developing differences with the Church bodies, a predominant domain of the clergy. Therefore, at the very beginning of our journey, we vouched to be non-interfering, non-controversial, neutral and objective, also to ensure that all debates and discourses are based on sound knowledge and scholarly appreciation. We are happy that we have lived up to what we envisaged when we decided to take the first step. Our indulgences in the past twelve months has been mostly in the form of providing knowledge and balanced questioning when needed. NECARF’s views on the unjust arrest of (late) Fr. Stan Swamy, and his subsequent unfortunate demise made public were the examples.

On the literary front, the content of NECARF Review is testimony to our commitment to share knowledge. The site which gets updated every month comes rich with topics ranging from Church histories of different states, education, pandemic, culture, legal, folk lore and tales, anecdotes & experiences and other secular writings and provides a handy knowledge bank for those seeking information on various subjects. Also the NE Brief update connects us to what is happening across the Archdiocese/Diocese of the region – achievements, breakthroughs, bereavement etc. quicker than ever. The site also gives opportunities to Catholic writers to express themselves on any topics or issues they consider useful and important. So much so, that few outside-region readers saw the site’s contents as unique and variety-filled, which indeed was encouraging.

All in all, it has been a year of meaningful engagement – a fulfilled indulgence in more ways than one. We thank all those who took the trouble to contribute articles on various topics and enriched the content of NECARF Review. Amongst them, our special thanks go to Prof. (Fr) Victor Ferrao and Fr. Joseph Thohrii for contributing nine and seven articles respectively, and we pray that they continue to show the same zeal and enthusiasm. As we enter the second year of our journey, we urge young scholars and professionals to disseminate knowledge through their writings and be an inspiration to others. We also urge every reader to kindly share articles they read to their friends, by clicking the desired social media link given below each article. We shall also appreciate valuable comments in the space provided for.

As we are now locked into a virtual world, let us pat ourselves on our shoulders and say, “Well done and congratulations!!”  For this is a collective triumph!

---

---

Visitor comments

---

Leave a comment