SCC Mandatory Policy Empathized

- Dominic J & Sybil Azavedo

Kolkata: In continuation of the Calcutta Synod 2017 and Archbishop Thomas D’Souza’s exhortation at the Synod that SCC is mandatory in all the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Kolkata, Fr. Dominic Gomes, Vicar General and SCC Coordinator for the Kolkata Archdiocese told the 30 participants of the Diocese Service Team (DST) that they had a heavy responsibility to work more than the animators in their Deaneries/Parishes and get the SCC moving efficiently. Fr. Dominic said at this DST meeting in Archbishop’s House on 10th February, 2018 to give him the names of the Facilitators/Animators who are active and passive and where the groups are stagnant in the Parishes and not reaching out to other areas of the Parishes to empower lay leaders to form and take charge of new SCC groups in the Parishes.

Repeating the resolutions taken at the Synod, Fr. Dominic emphasized that SCC will have to make families wanted as a community to be a participatory Church. For this it is necessary that a survey is taken of families and leaders identified; train the leaders in the methodology of the Seven Steps and Gospel Sharing; prepare and circulate guide-books for the proper conduct and functioning of SCC Cells and area units The dates given at the Synod were: for Parishes’ sur-veys to have started by 1st Janu-ary, 2018, the Parish animation training to ha ve be gun from 1st February, 2018 and the Guidebook to be launched by 23rd March, 2018.

Besides, providing help at Christmas functions and providing gifts and entertainment to the poor, needy and in old people’s homes, two successful stories, where a big number was involved from November, 2017 till January, 2018, were: 1. In Our Lady Queen of Peace, Tollygunge where a group found that the lonely and poor Mrs. Jutika Gomes’ house was surrounded with stagnant dirty drainage water all around – a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Her financial condition being not good, the group informed Fr. Piter Pradhan, the Parish Priest and other SCC groups. Fr. Piter even made announcements in the Church and so money was collected, the low land with debris was cleared and soil put, thus solving the problem. In November, 2017, the SCCs provided rice, dal, oil, potatoes, sugar, tea and soap for 50 families. This was reported by Mrs. Juliet Karak and Mr. Pius D’Mello to the SCC Coordinators for Zone IV. 

2. In Liluah Parish, Mrs. Jacinta Lakra and Mrs. Jyoti Kerketta reported that the SCCs distributed umbrellas to the needy and supported a widow who was thrown out of her house.

An hour was spent by the participants discussing Deanery-wise: the Parishes that do not have SCCS; the fruitfulness of SCCs and the areas that need to work on, the problems faced, the regular training and refresher courses required to make the SCCs effective and persevering; training in Gospel Sharing method, doing the 6th Step effectively by getting groups involved like in Tollygunge and Liluah, - in short: making SCCs, self-propagating, self-administering and self supporting communities.

To make the SCCs self-supporting at the Archdiocese’s level, Mrs. Sybil Azavedo organised the Breakfast and Lunch for the 30 members with the help of the Bramblebee family:Edward and Juana; and Mr. Sumit Singh with Mrs. Roselyn Miles, Mrs. Lidwina Alphonso, Mrs. Silvie D’Mello and Mrs. Cheryl Johnstone helping in the distribution.