Contributor: Father Binoy S. Gomes CSC, Thanchi, Bandarban Hill District
Shanti Raj Catholic Church, Thanchi parish situated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts organized a couples’ seminar on 19-20 July 2018. The theme for the seminar was ‘Catholic families are the seedbed of the faith’. The theme is taken from the pastoral letter of the archbishop of the archdiocese Most Rev. Moses M. Costa CSC issued on the occasion of the 5th centenary of the arrival of faith in Chittagong in which he depicted Catholic families as the seedbed of the faith.

Coordinator of the archdiocesan commission for family and judicial division of the diocesan curia diocesan priest Rev. Leonard C. Rebeiro was the keynote speaker in the seminar. 155 Catholics from different paras (tribal villages) participated in the event. Jubilee of the married life of some couples of the parish is also

celebrated together. In open session couples also got the opportunity to share ups and downs, challenges and joys in their married life.

A holy hour took place on the 19th July as the preparation for the jubilee celebration. Jubilee mass took place at the end of the seminar on the 20th July which was ministered by Rev. Leonard C. Rebeiro together with the parish priest of Thanchi Holy Cross priest Rev. Binoy S. Gomes, parish priest of Bolipara Holy Cross priest Rev. Hori Macario Das and the participants present.
The event is supported by the Archdiocesan Commission for Family Life.