As we learned earlier, Idukki diocese had its share of 'good days' and 'not so good days'. IOC has spent lot of effort towards the faithful of Idukki diocese. IOC gets a lot of credit for the good days of Idukki diocese. We will look at some of the things that IOC did for the betterment of the people for Idukki diocese.
The visionaries of IOC were the first ones to think about the faithful of Idukki. This led IOC to walk into Idukki and be the first denomination to setup a diocese in Idukki to care for the faithful of Idukki. To venture into a terrain to serve the poor people of Idukki without being pulled back by the challenges was one the greatest acts of Christian love.
IOC appointed a very capable leader (H.G. Barnabas thirumeni) to establish its diocese in Idukki. The disciple and service mentality of its leadership helped make the right choices for Idukki diocese. As we saw earlier, this action triggered great development of the Idukki
diocese in the early days.
With IOC's organizational structure and resource sharing model, IOC provided all the help needed for Idukki diocese in its early days. IOC provided support from neighboring diocese in the form of clergy and other resources.
IOC has always provided assistance to Idukki diocese to sustain the salaries of priests belonging to churches that could not afford their salary share.
The mission society has provided small grants to Idukki diocese from its Mission Sunday collections even though there were no organizations operated by the mission society.
IOC has provided help to build churches and sustain maintenance of the churches from the Catholicate day collection and from the Devalokam account.
IOC has responded to emergencies that have occurred in Idukki. When a church had collapsed due to rain, IOC did provide a major helping hand in the reconstruction of the church.
IOC also has been proactive in ensuring the long term growth needs of Idukki diocese. To balance the inequalities of the standards of education, IOC has quotas for each diocese in its admission process to the Seminary. These have ensured that Idukki has priests from among
its own people.
During the term of the previous H.H Bava thirumeni, a thirusheshipu of Parumala thirumeni was setup in Puttady. This attracts thousands of faithful to this place and thereby helped retain the faithful.
IOC selected peermedu as one of its locations to setup an IOC run Engineering College. This definitely has a positive impact on the local economy and provides more job and educational opportunities.
Lately, IOC appointed another very capable metropolitan (H.G. Augen Mar Dionysius) to take over the administration of Idukki. This was prompted a revival of Idukki from its 'not so good days'. IOC continues to shoulder its responsibility to Idukki through the
metropolitan.
Apart from the things that IOC directly did, the IOC churches across the world have been a major source of help for the diocese.
The list goes on. IOC does get lot of credits for the good things that it has done in Idukki.
To be continued…
Next Article: TID-7: ID: What could we have done better: The Discontinuous Leadership?
Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
http://www.stgregoriosaustin.org/
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