The situation of COVID19 is changing in an exponential manner and so are the strategies of its combatting. But now, it is evident that we have to live with it and Human being has to adapt themselves in the new normal situation. Caritas India organized the second Faith Webinar on 7 May 2020 to finalise the direction and the strategies for the united faith response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has been raging in the country. The webinar was conducted as the follow-up of the earlier-conducted faith webinar and to review the relief response strategies of the Catholic Church to the Covid-19 pandemic.

His Grace Sebastian Kallupura informed that Caritas India and her partner organisations have fanned out across the country to reach succor to the vulnerable communities. Catholic Church in India, including the religious congregations, have so far reached food and medical care to over one crore people, His Grace Sebastian informed.  He said that the Catholic Church’s solidarity response needs further intensification and expansion considering the worsening distress levels across the country.

The president of CBCI, His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias appreciated Caritas India for creating a platform for the Church-based agencies to converge and exchange ideas and plans for alleviating the sufferings of the poor. Terming the Covid-19 pandemic a pandemonium, Cardinal Gracias said that the crisis has been prowling across the globe making it extremely challenging for everyone to find an effective remedy.  In this period of hopelessness, the Church needs to entrust her efforts in the hands of the Lord and draw inspiration and strength from the Scripture.

Fr. Paul Moonjely, Executive Director Caritas India, appealed to the members to suggest strategies and supportive actions that the Church can adopt nationally for her relief response. He assured that all recommendations and suggestions would be collated and presented to the CBCI as the strategic response plan to address the crisis. Fr. Paul also recalled, while setting the agenda for the webinar, the important points that were discussed during the first Faith Webinar that was held one week ago.

Representing the Sisters’ Doctor Forum, Sr. (Dr) Beena warned of an imminent shortage of person power, funds, and facilities in the health care sector and called for judicious use of resources. Given the enormousness of the crisis, Church-based agencies need to work in close collaboration with the government to reach out to the most vulnerable population, Sr. Beena added.

Executive Director of IGSSS Mr. John Peter Nelson shared that now when many migrants may not return to cities, there is an immediate need for increasing livelihood opportunities in villages. The pandemic has also led to marginalization and exclusion in severe degrees. Hence, there is an urgent need to work more on inclusion.

Fr. (Dr.) Joseph Xavier of Indian Social Institute underscored the importance of hammering out a socio-pastoral strategy for the Catholic Church which can be used for communicating to the world what the Catholic Church embodies and aspires to do. This socio-pastoral plan should synthesize important dimensions like spirituality, psychological wellbeing, disaster response, and health. Fr. Joseph called for developing a database of relief works of the Catholic Church during the Covid-19 crisis for advocacy which can be used as a scientific basis for engaging with government and the external world.

Fr. Joe Mannath, National Secretary of CRI highlighted the huge potential of the Catholic Church in India for humanitarian action and said there are over 20,000 religious institutions in India. He said that the Church needs to be clear about her priorities and become what the Church is meant to be. He said that there should be shift from ‘People Going to Church’ to ‘Going-to-the-people-Church’.

“There is an urgent need to network with different agencies within the Church framework like lay associations, diocesan commissions, parish-level bodies, educational institutions, and other institutions”, shared Fr. Stephen Alathara, Secretary CCBI. Such coordinated response will help the Church compile an impressive consolidation of national level relief operations of the Church which can be used for creating visibility and credibility building.

Fr. Nicholas Barla, CBCI Commission for Adivasis insisted that Church should intensify her works for the empowerment of the youth and the women for coping them with the crisis and work aggressively on strengthening land, water, bird, artefacts and forest-based economies.

Mr. Anand Kumar, Director, PHIA underscored the need for a convergence of government, civil society, and the Church for combating the crisis. He said that there is an inescapable necessity to re-engineer rural livelihood systems from a reverse migration perspective.

Mr. Senthil Kumar, Executive Director CRS India, presented an overview of CRS’ joint ventures with Caritas India for distributing relief and popularizing COVID-19 safe response among Church-based development agencies. He informed the assembly about the ongoing assessment of food and livelihood security which CRS is conducting with the help of Caritas India.

Fr. Eugene of CBCI office for the Labour said that there is urgent need of convergence of the church, government and international bodies. He suggested forming two committees for working on the micro and macro-level issues and chalking out appropriate solution sets.

Fr. (Dr.) Jolly Puthenpura, Assistant Executive Director, Caritas India, echoed the grave concern over the rapidly worsening pandemic crisis in the country and said that the Catholic Church has a major role to play in defeating the COVID pandemic. He said that the Church needs to develop effective short-term and long-term strategies for addressing the emerging needs, especially for strengthening rural livelihoods and rural economy.

The meeting proposed few action points for the future interventions

• Networking with like-minded CSOs for increasing relief response reach & coverage and Strengthen partnership within the Church itself and improve coordination.
• Seeking more spiritual motivation to sustain challenging relief operations.
• Allocate existing health care infrastructure for exclusive Covid-19 treatment.
• Strengthening rural livelihood systems to absorb the migrants who return from cities.
• Promotion of traditional health care practices.
• Develop a report on the Contributions of the Church and release it at national level to increase the visibility of Church’s services during the Covid-19 crisis.
• Dioceses to work for the poor Christians who have lost livelihoods.
• Church should work to ensure that no one goes hungry; continue the distribution of dry ration.
• Rural entrepreneurship is encouraged so that the workers who have returned to villages get work.

Leaders of Catholic Church including His Eminence Oswald Gracias and Caritas India chairman Archbishop Sebastian Kallupura, office bearers of CBCI commissions Fr. Nicholas Barla, CBCI Commission for Adivasis, Fr. Vijay, of CBCI Commission for Dalits, Fr. Stephen Alathara, Secretary CCBI, Fr. Joe Mannath, National Secretary of Catholic Religious of India, Fr. (Dr.) Mathew Abraham, Catholic Health Association of India, Sr. (Dr) Beena, Sisters Doctors Forum, Mr. Senthil Kumar, Executive Directors of Catholic Relief Services, Fr. (Dr.) Joseph Xavier and Fr. Denzil SJ from Indian Social Institute, Mr. Anand Kumar, Director PHIA, Mr. John Peter Nelson, Indo-Global Social Service Society and Ms. Rose Joseph, GB member of Caritas India attended the webinar which was moderated by Fr. Paul Moonjely, Executive Director of Caritas India.