MINUTES OF THE VOCATION PROMOTERS’ MEETING – 14th. March 2009
The following were present for the meeting;
Frs. Aubrey F, Alpesh Macwan, Lawrence D, Dinesh B, Albert Arokiam, Hilary P, Maxim Crasta, Jose Pannadan, Charlie Kispotta, Jeetu DeMonte.
Fr. Kirit Patelia and others from the Guj team were not present.
The meeting was chaired by Fr. Dinesh.
The agenda was as follows.
- Submission of accounts of the last year.
- Presentation of budgets for the next year.
- Presentation of plans for the next year (starting this summer).
- Any other point to be discussed
The meeting started with a prayer, conducted by Fr. Alpesh. After which the minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.
Fr. Aubrey encouraged the group by appraising it of the task ahead of us and the need for priests in today’s world. He also spoke of the present situation of the church in
After this the vocation promoters reported on their work.
The
- The members of the meeting felt that not sufficient attention is being paid to central Guj. Vocations.
- It was felt that non-Gujaratis should also be part of the team
- Make inroads into Jesuit and non Jesuit schools.
- Fr. Jeetu paid two visits from Sughad to
Some comments he made: The boys are serious so there should be someone interested, serious and competent who should be appointed to lead the team.
Mangalore Team. Maxim Crasta
- He suggested only 2 persons in the team, (Maxim and Harry Martis)
- Made a trip to Karnataka in January.
- Plans 3 camps in Summer.
- Plans to work with the Karnataka Voc. promoter Fr. Joseph D’Souza.
- Plans to prepare leaflets in Kannada.
- Plans to scout in Kasargod,
- Fr. Charles was in tertianship so he couldn’t do anything during the year.
- Plans to take the help of the two juniors and the regent.
- Feels the need to go twice a year for voc. Promotion.
Tamil Nadu - Albert Ariokam
- The vocation promoter Fr. Albert visited 10 schools and spoke to the 10th and 12th std students, and collected the names and addresses of interested students on pre prepared forms.
- Good team work with Suresh and David who were studying in TN. They will be going for theology studies. Could they be asked to continue.
- If possible, Albert wanted to be relieved of the job of voc. Promoter, though he is ready to carry on. He suggested Fr. Peter Francis for
- Advertisements do not work any more.
- Will conduct a Camp in
-
- Fr. Hilary mentioned that he wrote to the boys of last year’s camp but there was no response.
- He plans to have a voc. Camp in Moger, Anand from May 9th to 14th..
- He will be going for tertianship in July so needs a replacement. (Vijay and Jeetu)
- Fr. Jose mentioned that advertisements did not work.
- They attend a diocesan camp which is compulsory for all boys leaving Kerala. Most of the boys attending the camp had already been selected before.
- Can’t attend the camp this year.
- Plans to visit boys in their homes.
- Can’t visit the boys in schools as he can’t leave the parish during the year..
- Difficulties: present PN system (2 yrs) not appealing since boys may lose 2 years if not selected after the 2nd year.
- He proposed to send boys after Eng. Course to do 11th and 12th in
Fr. Lawrence, the representative of the provincial then proposed the following.
- The need to foster vocations
- We need quality people in the society
- A retreat for our youth (2 or 3 days).
- Tap all available resources .
- It should be a collective effort of all Jesuits not only vocation promoters.
The following suggestions were made during the meeting.:
1. Open Vocation Promotion in Rajasthan. It was suggested that Fr. Charles Kispotta takes it up.
2. Regional family gathering expences should not be taken from the vocation promotion budget but from the province account..
3. There should be occasional training for vocation promoters.
4. There should be one full time Vocation Promoter for
5. It was proposed to contact the boys of class 9 and over the period of their 10, 11 and 12 stds keep in contact with them.
