Inauguration of the New Academic Year 2023-2024 in Bangalore, India

St. Alphonsus Institute: Joint Theologate of the Units of Bangalore, Liguori, and Majella in India

This year is special for St. Alphonsus Institute, Bangalore in India. The efforts of Fr. Shiju Mullasseril, C.Ss.R., the former Dean of St. Alphonsus College, enabled our institution to be raised to the status of an Institute, while being affiliated to St Peter’s Pontifical Institute, Bangalore. Our Theologate, now, is St. Alphonsus Institute. This year we were blessed with eleven students who joined the first year of theology. After many years, we once again have a fairly good number, of twenty-nine students, studying theology at our Institute. On 12^th June, Fr. Edward Joseph, C.Ss.R, the Provincial of the Province of Bangalore in India celebrated the inaugural Mass of the Holy Spirit and he motivated the students to give their all even as they rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to excel in every aspect of their lives in their formative years. He impressed upon them the need for academic excellence so that they become conversant not only with important questions that life will throw at them but, being enlightened by faith, also with a sense of direction to help those who reel under heavy burdens.

After a short break for tea and biscuits, both students and professors attended an orientation talk by Fr. Dr. Richard Britto, Rector, St Peter’s Seminary, in our AV room. He dwelt on “The Concept of the Common Good in the Social Thought of John Paul II: An Appraisal in Comparison with Michael Novak and Amartya Sen.” The talk and the question time that followed clearly helped us perceive that both our vocation and tasks we perform should edify not ourselves but lead to building up the entire community. Our sense of belonging to a community and the idea of the common good are so much intertwined. After a short break, the Director of St Alphonsus Institute, Fr. Assisi Saldanha, gave a short input to the students to begin the academic year 2023-2024 with great expectations. 

Fr. Assisi Saldanha, C.Ss.R.

Director,
St. Alphonsus Institute,
Bangalore – India.