Church leaders in Northeast to promote eye donation
The Claretians of North East have come forward to coordinate the eye donation movement in the region.
 |
| File photo--Father George Kannantham (left) hands a letter to Indian Nuncio Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio that was addressed to Pope Francis requesting the pontiff to pledge his corneas for donation. |
The North East Pastoral Conference, which brings together all the 15 Catholic dioceses in the region, on Sept. 14 resolved “to take up eye donation as a ministry and promote it through our institutions.”
The dioceses in the seven states also resolved to encourage their members “to donate eyes as an expression of sharing life.”
The initiative follows an appeal from Claretian Father George Kannanthanam, Founder and Director of Project Vision, to make a concrete decision to take up eye donation as a program in the region in the Year of Mercy.
Project Vision has been working since 2013 to foster and coordinate a movement on eye donation in India, which has a shortage of 100,000 corneas annually.
Some 150 top leaders of the dioceses including bishops and the heads of various religious Congregations were present of the pastoral conference gathering.
Fr Kannanthanam proposed setting up a Commission for the Differently Abled at each diocese to coordinate the activities for eye donation as well as to have an organised intervention for the differently challenged persons in the community which amounts to five percentage of the population.
This would help in developing a more ‘inclusive Church.’
The Claretians of North East have come forward to coordinate the eye donation movement in the region.
Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong, the Chairperson of the Northeast India Bishops’ Conference, endorsed the proposal and expressed the willingness to adopt it as a ministry of the Catholic Church in the Northeast.
No comments:
Post a Comment