May 31st 2015: At 10am the Inaugural Mass was concelebrated by Rt. Rev. Dr. Henry D’Souza, Bishop of Bellary and Chairman CBCI Council for Youth, Fr. Franklin D’Souza Executive Secretary, CBCI Council for Youth and National Youth Director of ICYM, Fr. Elias Moses Executive Secretary, CCBI Commission for Youth, Fr. Deepak K. J. Thomas OCD Secretary designate for CBCI Council for Youth, Fr. Mari Joseph Regional Youth Director of Karnataka Region and Fr. Sebastian Fernandez Director, KROSS. Bishop in his homily explained about the concept of Trinity and the reality of Youth in India.
The Inaugural ceremony had Bishop Henry as the chief guest and Fr. Franklin, Fr. Deepak, Fr. Elias, Fr. Mari, Fr. Sebastian, Mr. Suresh and Ms. Jemcy were present on the dais. Mr. Suresh Rao, President, ICYM welcomed the dignitaries. Fr. Franklin in his inaugural address briefed about the CAT program, CBCI and ICYM. He also said that ‘God calls the unqualified ad then qualifies them’. The role of the animators and directors is not to be entertainer for youth but to be mentor for the youth. He thereby welcomed the delegates for the CAT.
Bishop Henry in his address challenged the animators as to how many minds were we able to reach and shared some of his life experiences in the youth ministry. He also said that animator’s role is not to judge the youth, instead understand them and accompany them. He further on said that there are three types of directors/animators- demanding, commanding and inspiring. Youth must be treated with dignity and all the organizations must be made open to the youth and the dream and aim of animators/directors should be to prepare today itself the leaders for tomorrow. And in that process we must be able to break all barriers of caste, language and religion. Fr. Deepak Thomas in his address wished the delegates good participation and a happy stay. Fr. Elias shared his experience as the Secretary of CCBI Youth Commission and asked the animators to skill up their faith and speed up their actions. Fr. Mari in his address said that while working with the youth there is lot to know and learn from the young minds and that respecting them is very important. Fr. Sebastian said that youth ministry is very challenging and wished good luck to the participants. Ms. Mary Jemcy General Secretary, ICYM proposed the vote of thanks.
The 23rd Chaplains’ and Animators’ training program was thus official flagged off.
The first session was conducted by Fr. Franklin wherein he briefed the delegates about the program and the participants also introduced themselves. Post lunch Mr. Roshan Madtha conducted two sessions on ‘Icebreakers and Calisthenics’ with the primary motive to endow the animators/directors with basic techniques to conduct icebreaking sessions. After the evening rosary the evening session started and it comprised of grouping of the delegates into 4 groups and a pre CAT test was conducted and CAT secret friends were selected. After the evaluation of the day everyone retired to their rooms.
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