The Seminary staff and students welcomed the Archbishop -Patriarch, Most Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrao, for the inauguration of the 59th scholastic year of the Seminary on 18th June, 2011. The function, based on the theme ‘Devacho mog, mon’xa-xristtichea sombhondhan jieum-ia’ began with a concelebrated Mass with the Archbishop as the main celebrant. Besides the staff of the Seminary and Seminary Niwas, Fr. Manuel Gomes, ex-Rector, Fr. Loila Pereira and other priests working in the neighbouring parishes, also joined in the celebration. Among the congregation, there were nuns, lay teaching staff of the Seminary and a few parents of the students. Thereafter, the Seminarians treated the audience to a short but engrossing cultural programme that started with a beautiful rendition of the London March for which the Seminarians were trained by Mr. Antonio Velho, music teacher, and conducted by Fr. Derrick Fernandes, the newly appointed prefect of the Seminary and who also teaches music to students of Stds. VIII and IX. His musical talents were again displayed when later on the Seminarians sung almost to perfection “Ave Verum Corpus”.
The highlight of the programme was a solo sung by Fr. Jesus Rodrigues entitled ‘Animals’ by MLTR. As the proverbial saying goes, the icing of the cake was a beautiful composition by Fr. Bernardo Cota ‘Xristti’ based on the pastoral theme, 2011-2012, and sung acappela by the Seminarians of the Seminary Niwas under his direction.
This year we have tried to re-introduce the old tradition of ‘lectio brevis’ which, however, we call the keynote address, delivered by Fr. Edwin Pereira, who has been appointed on the Seminary Staff as a prefect and teacher. In his address Fr. Edwin Pereira dealt beautifully on the theme “Covenant between Human Beings and Creation: Divine Love’s Manifestation” highlighting the relationship between the Word of God and Nature and our responsibility towards it. In order to make the pastoral theme a concrete reality in the life of the Seminarians, we have introduced manual work schedule in the daily time-table and further resolved to carry forward the farming activities with the help of the water-shed, he added.
Earlier, the Rector, Fr. Tony Salema, welcomed the Archbishop-Patriarch and the guests. In his address, he informed about the various measures taken like exposing the students to various places of interest and extracurricular activities to provide an all round and holistic education to the students. He further informed that an audio-visual room is under preparation for which a well-wisher has donated a lap-top and LCD projector while internet connection is also made available to help the students in their various projects/assignments. Regarding examination results, he said that we have achieved cent per cent results in Stds. VIII, IX and X while it was 93% for Std.XII students. Shifting his attention to the staff, Fr. Rector welcomed Frs. Derrick and Edwin, Sr. Mary Renee and Mrs. Mathy Botelho who joined the staff this academic year and thanked the outgoing staff members, Frs. Pio Almeida and Avito Almeida, whereas Fr. Joseph Estrocio has taken over as In-charge of the Seminary Niwas. Teacher Joy Joseph proposed a vote of thanks. The programme ended with the Seminary Anthem.
