New head of Indian Religious wants collaboration with Asia, Africa

(October 08, 2009) A Montfort Brother elected to head the Catholic Religious in India says he wants Religious to collaborate with their counterparts in other parts of the Church, particularly in Asia and Africa. Brother K.M. Joseph, 60, was elected on October 2 as the national president of the Conference of Religious India (CRI), the representative body of some 125,000 Religious priests, nuns and brothers. The election took place on the concluding day of CRI’s five-day national assembly in New Delhi, which made wide-ranging resolutions to help the Religious body face the challenges of a changing India. Brother Joseph, a mathematics teacher who now heads the Montfort congregation’s Hyderabad province, says that CRI has to become “a more vibrant body, with specific structures, which can face challenges and crises more definitively and more proactively.” The community of Religious in India appears quite “vibrant” already and the CRI therefore should look outward to “interact, collaborate and support Religious in other parts of the Church, particularly those in Asia and Africa,” besides providing leadership to its members, he said. Brother Joseph says his status as a brother would prove a “great advantage” in leading the CRI to its goals. “I will not be weighed down by the tag of clericalism,” he said. Sister Prasanna Thattil, superior general of Congregation of Holy family, is the new president of the CRI women’s section.