40 Years On… Lighting the Footsteps of Many!

Deepagam is the Don Bosco Centre for faith and value formation of the Salesians of the Chennai Province in the field of Evangelization and Catechesis.

 

With gratitude to God, to Mary Help of Christians and to our Founder, St. John Bosco, the Province of Chennai has a glorious history of 96 years. There has been a tremendous growth in the number of both personnel and past, today we are 318 Salesians working in 40 centres.

 

The single Province of St. Thomas, which was started in 1926 in India at Calcutta, was bifurcated into two Province in 1934, - one at Calcutta with St. John Bosco as its patron and the other on 8th February 1934 at Chennai, with St. Thomas the Apostle as its patron and having the Provincial House at Vellore.

 

The work of Catechetical Animation was started in the year 1984 in a small way. During the Provincial Chapter 1989 it was decided to have a centre for this purpose and to set aside a person fully free for the catechetical and evangelization work in the province.

 

In the field of Catechesis, Deepagam, the Don Bosco Catechetical Centre in Chennai reaches out in various ways to Youth, Teachers, Parishioners, and Families, in the formation of Christian Faith in Tamil Nadu.

 

At the start, from 1984 to 1991, although with limited personnel and resources, many animation programs and seminars were conducted for students, teachers and seminarians both in the Salesian and in the Diocesans set-ups.

 

During 1992-1998, the centre grew rapidly and systematically spreading its rays in various fields of activities such as animation programs, publication and productions, Audio-Visual Lending Library, Bible Exhibition, Training Programs and Multimedia Programs. With the help of the Provincial Commission members for Evangelisation and Catechesis, various programs and activities were planned and executed.

 

Achievements

Faith formation has been the main focus of the centre. Programs are conducted for various levels such as PACE - Professional Approach to Christian Education and PAVE – Professional Approach to Value Education. Animation programs for Salesian School Catechism and Moral Science teachers and Parish Catechism teachers of our Province are conducted in different regions. The centre also carries out animation of Basic Christian Community (BCC) Leaders in Parishes.

 

Animation Programs and Retreats are conducted on request for the school students and teachers in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. Catechetical Formation Programs for Catechists, Novices, Junior Sisters and Sisters preparing for the final vows and students of theology and philosophy are also conducted.

 

The Publication Division has contributed its share for the spreading of the Good News through articles submitted to monthly magazines like the Salesian Bulletin, Arumbu, Seithimalar and other publications. The centre has been publishing every year catechetical and value-based books as resource material and study books, a service much appreciated and sought after by various groups of persons, even from different faiths. The centre has brought out forty-two books, so far.

 

Since November 1994, the Sound and Light Programme on Family (Uravin Sangamam) has been conducted on six stages in different centres enacted by the Deepagam cultural team. Besides this, the centre has produced four more programs. They are: Passion of Our Lord, Dimensions of Love, Our Lady, and Passion of Christ in the light of the Eucharist.

 

Being witness to Christ’s love, availability, relationship, rapport, appreciation of the good values in other religions and respect for non-Christians will create an ideal ambience for evangelization in the third millennium.

 

“We the confreres of the Province of Chennai, inspired by the preferential option of Jesus, for the “Poor of Yahweh” and Don Bosco’s predilection for poor and abandoned youth, commit ourselves to the integral human and religious education of the young. In collaboration with the Salesian family and other people of good will, we creatively and daringly respond to the signs of the times by opting to work for the poorest of the poor.”

 

Source: Acts of the Provincial Chapter 2004, Salesian Province of Chennai (INM) pp. 99-100.