Pastoral Institute - Semester year 2013-2014
The Administration, Faculty, Staff and Students of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Institute convened at Paul Nguyen Van Binh Hall of the Pastoral Centre on May 23, 2014. Its main agenda was to evaluate the Institute’s programs of the School Year 2013-2014 as well as to plan the activities for the next SY 2014-2015.
It was attended by the administrators, Auxiliary Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham, Rev. Father Peter Nguyen Van Hien, the Institute’s Director and Rev. Father Francis Xavier Bao Loc, Vice-Director respectively. It was honoured also by the presence of Rev. Father Anthony Nguyen, SJ, Rev. Father Joseph Hoang Ngoc Dung , SJ and Rev. Father Stephen Huynh, Lecturer on Psychology. They are the incoming new members of the faculty for the SY 2014-2015.
The Institute has welcomed 2,281 students, 49 trainees in Theology, 34 students for Sacred Music, 16 classes in English and has employed 30 teachers during the school year 2013-2014.
The meeting began with the invocation to the Holy Spirit through singing which was led by Fr. Francis Xavier Bao Loc. It has been noted that the Pastoral Institute has been operational for 10 years and now the assembly were looking back what has been done with the Institute’s program and activities this SY 2013-2014.
As I listened through the English translation of Fr. Ta Huy Hoang, I felt awe and admiration for the vitality and successes the Institute has done for a span of 10 years. Bishop Peter Nguyen Van Kham has aptly said that in spite of its limitations; the Institute has gone in the right direction. There were strengths as well as weaknesses as seen in the program as outlined in the three areas of formation: Knowledge, Spirituality (spiritual life), and Mission.
Knowledge: I agree to Fr. Peter Nguyen Van Hien’s specific directions to review the curriculum for the laity, to update or to renew the teaching methods where an inclusion for Eastern culture like providing more subjects on culture and Vietnam’s folk belief system be made. It has to be a contextualizedcurriculum. It is vital and imperative for a person or a leader for that matter to know one’s roots as a Vietnamese and Christian as well.
Spiritual life: Is the heartbeat as it were of a formative community. The chapel can provide the students a place of solitude and an atmosphere for prayer and worship. It would encourage them to foster and to deepen their relationship with God and with one another.
Mission: Imbued with essential knowledge and deep spirituality, a Pastoral Institute graduate would then be ready to participate in the evangelizing mission of the Church.
In hindsight, if the Pastoral Institute envisions for the holistic formation of the students who avail its quality of education as a school of faith; it is but appropriate to focus on programs and activities that are geared for Christian formation and leadership on Basic Ecclesial Communities or Parishes.
Hence, it is a challenge for each pastor of each parish in the Archdiocese to promote and to send active leaders in their respective parishes in order to benefit to the formative education the Pastoral Institute has to offer. It is thereby an avenue for evangelizing and revitalizing the Church of Vietnam.
Sr. Fenecia