About 1,500 people will gather from 14 to 18 October at the St Pius Seminary, Goregaon (Mumbai). Over a five-day period, they will work on the theme ‘Let your light shine’. About 120 bishops as well as hundreds of priests, men and women religious and members of the laity will take part in the proceedings, the prelate explained, and “share in the faith in Jesus Christ” to “enlighten India through the Gospel of charity.”

 The CBCI president met AsiaNews yesterday, on the sidelines of the press conference presenting the congress (pictured). He insisted on the value of the Christian experience in the country. In this context, the Prabhu Yesu Mahotsav provides an opportunity to highlight the rich life of the Indian Church and encourage its missionary impetus.

“Some 18 million Catholics and tens of thousands of priests as well as men and women religious live across the country,” the cardinal said. “The congress is meant to encourage them to enlighten the population with the radiance of the values and teachings of the Gospel, one that spreads through service, the development of greater personal awareness, and nation-building,” he added.

“We have the privilege of having had Mother Teresa,” said the archbishop of Mumbai, for whom the example of the Blessed of Kolkata is a living example of mission in India and for India. Indeed, the experience and actions by Christians in Indian society will be one of the points of discussion in the congress.

“One of the most significant fields in which Indian Christians are present is education,” cardinal Gracias said. The Indian Church is in fact the greatest provider of education after the Indian government. Catholic schools, universities and institutes provide “an all-round education to students, not only Catholic, so that they can make an effective contribute to society and the country.”

Among other socially relevant activities, health care is another field in which the missionary impetus of the Indian Church expresses itself. This is done through a tight network of dispensaries, health care centres and hospitals run by the Church across the country.

The close relationship between the life of the Church and the complex cultural reality of the country is another topic on which congress will focus.

“We, in our beloved motherland India, live in a pluralistic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society. In this context, we are called to recognise the calling of Jesus to inculturate ourselves in the culture that surrounds us and live according to the circumstances of the place,” Cardinal Gracias said.

“The Church is implanted in the culture and context of India,” the CBCI president noted. “It is no accident that it is celebrating its first mission congress at the time of Diwali, the festival of lights, which celebrates the victory of goodness over evil.”

The Prabhu Yesu Mahotsav brings together the local and universal dimensions of the Church’s mission. It is no coincidence that World Mission Day—to be celebrated by the world’s Churches on the last day of the congress 18 October—will take place alongside Diwali celebrations.

Equally important for Cardinal Gracias, the theme chosen for Prabhu Yesu Mahotsav echoes that of Benedict XVI for World Mission Day: ‘Nations will walk in its light.”

“This way, the Church of India expresses its communion and love for the Universal Church,” the prelate said, and shows its desire “to bring its own contribution to the missionary task to which all Christians in the world are called.”