The Inauguration Day’s highlight was the Mass which was celebrated by Provincial, Fr. Agnelo Mascarenhas, at St. Xavier’s Church, Camp Pune.  There were seven concelebrants and about 10 people, including the choir members and readers in attendance.   The Mass was streamed online. A lot of preparation had gone into the production of the Mass:

There were four different choirs involved, such as the choirs, readers, Mass parts etc. The number of viewers for the Mass were 1,436. They also did the publicity campaign and advertisement for the Mass, not only amongst Jesuits but also among the many religious and the laity that is associated with them in some way or the other. Among the things they did to get people’s attention was to send out some videos and flyers.  This helped create an atmosphere of anticipation. Below is listed some of the videos and flyers that was sent out. 
–  Flyer advertising the Mass on 20 May 2021
– Flyer advertising the inaugural Mass of Fr. General in Rome and other online websites in connection with the inauguration date all over the world.
– Flyer with Fr. Cyril’s article on St. Ignatius
– The IY “History” movie (five minutes) on the origin of the Pune Province
–  You Tube link for the Mass for the 500th Anniversary: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYlJTMKlHxE

FUTURE PLANS:
The immediate plans for the future would be the reading of the Autobiography of St. Ignatius by every member of the province.  This reading would be in preparation for the ONLINE talk on the Autobiography which is to be delivered by Fr. Francis Pudhicherry on June 18, 2021 at 7 pm. The Autobiography would later be discussed chapter-wise by our communities in different sessions.

By Fr. Kenneth Misquitta