TID-6: Idukki Diocese and IOC: What did we do right?

TID-6: Idukki Diocese and IOC: What did we do right?

As we learned earlier, Idukki diocese had its share of 'good days' and
'not so good days'. IOC has spent lot of effort towards the faithful
of Idukki diocese. IOC gets a lot of credit for the good days of
Idukki diocese. We will look at some of the things that IOC did for
the betterment of the people for Idukki diocese.

The visionaries of IOC were the first ones to think about the faithful
of Idukki. This led IOC to walk into Idukki and be the first
denomination to setup a diocese in Idukki to care for the faithful of
Idukki. To venture into a terrain to serve the poor people of Idukki
without being pulled back by the challenges was one the greatest acts
of Christian love.

IOC appointed a very capable leader (H.G. Barnabas thirumeni) to
establish its diocese in Idukki. The disciple and service mentality of
its leadership helped make the right choices for Idukki diocese. As we
saw earlier, this action triggered great development of the Idukki
diocese in the early days.

With IOC's organizational structure and resource sharing model, IOC
provided all the help needed for Idukki diocese in its early days. IOC
provided support from neighboring diocese in the form of clergy and
other resources.

IOC has always provided assistance to Idukki diocese to sustain the
salaries of priests belonging to churches that could not afford their
salary share.

The mission society has provided small grants to Idukki diocese from
its Mission Sunday collections even though there were no organizations
operated by the mission society.

IOC has provided help to build churches and sustain maintenance of the
churches from the Catholicate day collection and from the Devalokam
account.

IOC has responded to emergencies that have occurred in Idukki. When a
church had collapsed due to rain, IOC did provide a major helping hand
in the reconstruction of the church.

IOC also has been proactive in ensuring the long term growth needs of
Idukki diocese. To balance the inequalities of the standards of
education, IOC has quotas for each diocese in its admission process to
the Seminary. These have ensured that Idukki has priests from among
its own people.

During the term of the previous H.H Bava thirumeni, a thirusheshipu of
Parumala thirumeni was setup in Puttady. This attracts thousands of
faithful to this place and thereby helped retain the faithful.

IOC selected peermedu as one of its locations to setup an IOC run
Engineering College. This definitely has a positive impact on the
local economy and provides more job and educational opportunities.

Lately, IOC appointed another very capable metropolitan (H.G. Augen
Mar Dionysius) to take over the administration of Idukki. This was
prompted a revival of Idukki from its 'not so good days'. IOC
continues to shoulder its responsibility to Idukki through the
metropolitan.

Apart from the things that IOC directly did, the IOC churches across
the world have been a major source of help for the diocese.

The list goes on. IOC does get lot of credits for the good things that
it has done in Idukki.

To be continued…

Next Article: TID-7: ID: What could we have done better: The
Discontinuous Leadership?

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
http://www.stgregoriosaustin.org/