Young Students of India Pledge to be Youthful at the Young Catholic Students National Convention
Mangaluru: Student participants from different parts of the country Pledged to be Youthful at the III National Convention of the YCS/YSM (Young Catholic Students / Young Students Movement) held in Bangalore from 26th – 30th May 2022.
Most. Rev. Peter Machado the Archbishop of Bangalore Archdiocese in his presidential address exhorted the students to be at the service of the humanity with all their energy, talents and dynamism. Archbishop hoisted the national flag and declared the convention open. Among the other dignitaries, Rev. Fr. Stephen Alathara the deputy general secretary of CCBI (Conference of the Catholic Bishops of India), Fr. Chethan Machado the National Chaplain of YCS/YSM, Fr. Anil D’Sa, IYCS Asian Chaplain & Executive Secretary of Bangalore Archdiocesan Youth Commission, Fr Lourduraj the Karnataka Region youth director, Rev Fr Vivian Richards the YCS/YSM chaplain of Bangalore archdiocese were present.
Mr K. Mathai KAS, the retired officer from Bengaluru was the chief guest of the inaugural programme who delivered the key note address and instilled a spirit of patriotism, standing for truth and justice among the students. Fr Stephen Alathara in his felicitation speech gave examples of many Indian saints who lived a youthful life and exhorted the students to be the modern saints.
As part of the convention the students were taken to ten different places in Bangalore for exposure visits and were enabled to put into practice the YCS methodology of “See Judge and Act”. Exhibition of different cultural dresses, food, and literature was inaugurated by the Rev Fr Chethan Machado. The students enjoyed visiting different stalls in the exhibition sight and savouring the food items of different regions. A lot of experiential learning, entertainment, friendship, fun and frolic marked the day
The five day convention will witness a lot of sessions on the theme “Young Students for Youthful Life” and the thrust areas “Self Identity, Safe School and New Society” Interaction with former YCS members, visit of guests and celebrities going to add colour to the students gathering for five days. The students are all excited and open for learning and friendship as expressed by the many students in their sharing sessions.
