Saturday, August 9, 2025

Agartala Diocese on a Synodal Missionary Journey


The Diocese of Agartala came alive on 5 August 2025 with a one-day colloquium bringing together around 70 delegates—priests, sisters, brothers, and lay representatives from every parish and institution. The gathering - as part of the CCBI Jubilee Yātra - centred on the Jubilee 2025 theme, Pilgrims of Hope on a Synodal Journey, while also reflecting on Pope Francis’s Mission Sunday message, Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples.


Bishop Lumen Monteiro opened the event with a warm welcome, urging participants to engage deeply and carry the day’s inspirations back to their communities. The keynote sessions, led by Rev. Fr. R. Antonysamy, National Coordinator for Jubilee 2025, explored the Jubilee’s central theme of “Hope,” grounded in Pope Francis’s Spes Non Confundit. He challenged participants to live as authentic signs of hope—reading the signs of the times, embodying peace, life, and mercy, and walking with those on the margins: the poor, the sick, prisoners, migrants, and the elderly.


Lively group discussions, facilitated by Fr. Ivan D’Souza, gave participants space to share ways of “being renewed by hope” and “becoming signs of hope.” Points of reflection included Christian life, eternal life, salvation, the Sacrament of Penance, and Mary as the Model of Hope.

The second session unpacked the Pope’s Mission Sunday message, emphasizing three calls: walking in Christ’s footsteps, being builders of hope among all peoples, and renewing the mission of hope. Fr. Antonysamy urged the faithful to embrace their baptismal identity as missionaries, serving with love and the Spirit’s power, especially the most vulnerable.

Closing the day, Bishop Lumen reminded participants that the Jubilee’s midpoint is not a time for complacency but renewed zeal. The colloquium ended with heartfelt gratitude, a prayer of thanksgiving, and a shared sense that the Diocese is set to walk further on its synodal, hope-filled path.

Participants left enriched, committed to becoming beacons of hope—locally rooted, globally connected, and united in mission.