Dhaka (AsiaNews/UCAN) For the Year of the Eucharist, the Church in Bangladesh is focusing on sermons, seminars and Eucharistic worship.
According to Father Tapan C. De Rosario, assistant secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh, all six dioceses in the country have taken "special initiatives" to help laypeople to better understand the significance of the year.
The Church is encouraging visits to adoration chapels and pilgrimages to diocesan or parish shrines during the year, Father De Rosario added.
The old building of Dhaka's Tejgaon Holy Rosary Church, which served as the central adoration chapel during the Jubilee Year 2000, is again being used for special prayers and Eucharistic meditation.
Religious belonging to various congregations from across the country met there for a daylong Eucharistic seminar on February 2, World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.
"I am very much impressed by the participation of the laity in different religious programmes that have been organised around the Eucharist. Laity, priests and religious have been participating in Eucharistic and other programmes with much interest," said Mgr Theotonius Gomes, Auxiliary Bishop of Dhaka and Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference.
More specifically, dioceses and parishes have planned discussions, moments of meditation, prayers, seminars and cultural activities centred on the Eucharist that involve priests, religious, parents, youth and children.
A regional Eucharistic seminar for the laity, priests and religious was held on January 30at St Francis Xavier Church in Golla in Dhaka archdiocese. Another one is scheduled for March 11 and 12 in the archdiocese's Bhawal area.
"Recently I have attended several inaugurations of Eucharistic programmes and processions where I found priests, religious and laity all participating actively" Bishop Gomes said. "In fact, it comes automatically to us that the Eucharist is at the centre of our lives".
The Bishop, who recently visited the Dhaka parishes of Nagari and Tumilia, outside the city limits, also said: "Our people have been able to realise that it is worthy to give preference to the Sacraments and spirituality".