We [vimal and Michael] went to Tamil nadu last month to promote vocations and hopefully to finid some promisiing candidates for our congregation for the coming year. arrived in chennai in the evening of october 23rd. stayed in catholic centre overnight. visited four higher secondary schools {+2] altogether [ chengalpet, pondur, athipet, and tirupattur]. intially planned to visit 7 schools but could not make it due to torrential rains over there. two of these schools are situated in vellore diocese, while the other two are in chengalpattu diocese. the number of the catholic students in those schools, is comparitively small.
we were given some 10-15 minitues to address those students. so we explained to them in brief about vocation in general and religious vocation in particular, about our founder, our congregation, our mission, our presence in India and abroad, and about our formation program. the boys listened attentively to our short talk. in the end we asked them to give their name and address if they are interested to join us or to know more about us. but sadly only very few hands went up. we only got hardly five students from these four schools. and some of them told us that they would write to us after consulting their parents at home.
we were trying to analyse the reasons for this decline in number and made the following observations:
* first of all, several other congregations have gone before us to these schools in search of vocations for their respective congregations, mainly the Salesians and the Jesuits. those boys are very keen to join one of these congregations as they are quite known to them all. some others are interested in joining their own dioceses.
* Secondly, nowadays,families are becoming neutral i.e. to say each family has got only one or two children and naturally parents do not allow them to go to seminary, even if the boys are interested.
* thirdly, some students are worried about the distance. since our formation houses are mainly in andhrapradesh and in kerala, the boys from tamil nadu find it difficult to come over here and so choose to join the congregations that are nearby.
some suggestions for the district India:
Taking the distance factor into consideration we would like to suggest district India to provide for the travel expenses of the candidates from tamilnadu. in addition to this they are also hailing from economically backward families and are not in a position to afford for their travel expenses.
If we are looking for more vocations from Tamil Naud, then it is better for us to go to that particular dioceses [chengalpet and vellore or any other diocese for that purpose] in summer when they conduct their vocation camps. there, many a students form all over the diocese come together of which only a few will get selected. so we have the possibility to find some good candidates from the rest.
we are in touch with those students with a hope that some of them would come to us next year.
thank you
lovingly yours in Heart of Jesus
bros.michael and vimal
we were given some 10-15 minitues to address those students. so we explained to them in brief about vocation in general and religious vocation in particular, about our founder, our congregation, our mission, our presence in India and abroad, and about our formation program. the boys listened attentively to our short talk. in the end we asked them to give their name and address if they are interested to join us or to know more about us. but sadly only very few hands went up. we only got hardly five students from these four schools. and some of them told us that they would write to us after consulting their parents at home.
we were trying to analyse the reasons for this decline in number and made the following observations:
* first of all, several other congregations have gone before us to these schools in search of vocations for their respective congregations, mainly the Salesians and the Jesuits. those boys are very keen to join one of these congregations as they are quite known to them all. some others are interested in joining their own dioceses.
* Secondly, nowadays,families are becoming neutral i.e. to say each family has got only one or two children and naturally parents do not allow them to go to seminary, even if the boys are interested.
* thirdly, some students are worried about the distance. since our formation houses are mainly in andhrapradesh and in kerala, the boys from tamil nadu find it difficult to come over here and so choose to join the congregations that are nearby.
some suggestions for the district India:
Taking the distance factor into consideration we would like to suggest district India to provide for the travel expenses of the candidates from tamilnadu. in addition to this they are also hailing from economically backward families and are not in a position to afford for their travel expenses.
If we are looking for more vocations from Tamil Naud, then it is better for us to go to that particular dioceses [chengalpet and vellore or any other diocese for that purpose] in summer when they conduct their vocation camps. there, many a students form all over the diocese come together of which only a few will get selected. so we have the possibility to find some good candidates from the rest.
we are in touch with those students with a hope that some of them would come to us next year.
thank you
lovingly yours in Heart of Jesus
bros.michael and vimal
posted by PRIESTS OF THE SACRED HEART, ELURU at 9:05 pm
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