Fr. Jose Parappully, the Director of Sumedha Centre, was invited to address the Catholic Bishops of India at a seminar on “Priests for Our Times- the Role of Bishops” organised by the National Vocation Service Centre, Pune from 17th 21st October. The topic assigned to him was “Psychosexual Integration and Celibate Life.”
There were 33 bishops from all the three Indian Rites.
The topics that Fr. Parappully explored with the Bishops included: Some contemporary challenges such as general immaturity among priests, celibate loneliness, clericalism, sexual harassment and sexual abuse; healthy formation process, rethinking vocation recruitment, assessment and accompaniment of candidates to the priesthood and the need to put in place policies and procedures to prevent sexual abuse by the clergy, to deal effectively with allegations of abuse and to care for victims of abuse.
The workshop helped the Bishops to address more seriously the issue of Psychosexual and Celibate Integration of priests and candidates to the priesthood.
