Presidents Message
FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK
Hello fellow executive committee members,
First, I want to congratulate you; because we are all chosen (elected) to lead Catholic Congress Canada as its founding executive team. I do take this responsibility, as founding president, as an honor and I promise to work diligently with you. We took on a task to define our ‘purpose’. We were careful to focus on the bigger picture and not to get distracted in strategies and actions. Our meetings on October 23rd, 2021 and November 3, 2021, we focused to answer the question WHY we exist or the Purpose of CCC
We were intentional and purposeful, as we were laying the foundation for catholic congress Canada. With that objective in mind, we completed a vision building exercise. It was important for me that our own purpose & values align with that of CCC to have meaningful purpose statement- A pre-requisite, in my opinion, to our commitment to do justice to our role.
I want to thank you for allowing me to lead this workshop and you were more than gracious in sharing your 'story' around your core values. It was inspiring, engaging and energizing. The common thread among all of us were these key values- Faith, community, integrity, unity & fairness. We went through various iterations of our draft purpose statemen and we decided on the following purpose statement:
PURPOSE STATEMENT (OUR WHY):
OUR PURPOSE IS TO IMPROVE THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC LIVES OF OUR COMMUNITY, ANCHORED BY OUR CATHOLIC FAITH AND GUIDED BY OUR CORE VALUES OF INTEGRITY, INCLUSION, AND FAIRNESS
The above purpose statement should always guide us, as our north star, for every decision the current or future generations attempts to make.
We have used the word ‘improve’ in our purpose statement as an inclusive word that means, fellowship, Friendship, wiping Away their Tears, to support, bond, unite, strengthen etc. the word ‘Fairness’ is used as an inclusive word with the meaning of Equity, equality, respect for others. The word ‘Inclusion’ is used that may treat everyone equally irrespective of their gender and socio- economic status etc. While we focus on providing service to the members of the CCC, the word Community does not mean to restrict to only Syro-Malabar community but to communities around us. Anchored by catholic faith is meant to be steered by the catholic virtues and values.
Catholic Congress Canada will not interfere in the spiritual and or liturgical facets of our church. The task of delivering pastoral care would be strictly under the guidance of the clergy under the guidance and direction of the bishop. We are here to support & complement the church and its pastoral activities
Our attention would be directed to the social, economic, cultural, and political factors of our community. We will adhere and align with the global Catholic Congress and work diligently with Global Catholic Congress Leadership Team. We will adapt and accept the core principles and administrative guidelines from the Catholic Congress while at the same time, we will hold Catholic Congress Canada to be relevant in Canadian context.