CONFERENCE OF RELIGIOUS, INDIA CRI House, Masihgarh, New Friends Colony P.O., Okhla, New Delhi 110025 Phones: 011-26923911, 9599553824, 7065750902; E-mail: [email protected] REFERENCE: 2018/03/14-Assembly 3 March 14, 2018 To All the Major Superiors of Religious of India SUBJECT (LETTER 3 ABOUT THE ASSEMBLY): REGISTRATION & RELATED INFO Dear Friends, Since some of you wrote to me saying they had heard of the Assembly, but not received my letter (of January 31), I not only sent a second letter about the Assembly, but also emailed that letter to our Regional Secretaries, asking them to forward it to all the Major Superiors of their region. I hope you received that second letter, either from our Delhi office ([email protected]) or from your Regional Secretary, or from both. I will do the same with this Third Letter. The Assembly will be held, as you know, at SRM University, . To be more precise—since SRM has several campuses in Chennai, and several branches in other cities—we will be hosted on their Kattankulathur Campus, which is near Potheri Railway Station on the Electric Train Route from Chennai Beach to Chingalpet. Distance from Chennai Central Station: 45 kilometres. Distance from Chennai airport: 25 kilometres. Relax! We shall arrange special buses at both places to pick you up. There will be a CRI team to welcome you and take you to the bus, or to put you in the electric train (Park Station) near Chennai Central, if you prefer to reach the venue by train. If you do, please get down at Potheri Station. From there, special buses will take you to the campus. Attached to this letter is the Registration Form. Please fill it, and send it, together with your payments (by DD or Delhi-based Cheque). In addition, please send me a SOFT COPY OF YOUR PHOTO. This is for making the ID for the meeting. We will make sure only the official participants enter the hall, so that we are free to speak and discuss. As I told you (in Letter Two), His Excellency Giambattista Diquattro, our Nuncio, will be with us all the four days, and is willing to meet with the Major Superiors who want/need to see him. If you like to get an APPOINTMENT WITH THE NUNCIO, please tick that box on the Registration Form. In the afternoon of May 30th (probably 2 to 7 pm) we are planning a short OUTING TO CHENNAI CITY, visiting the sites connected with St. Thomas (St. Thomas Mount, Little Mount and Cathedral), as well as . We shall check at the venue how many of you will be joining this trip. So, too, I mentioned a TRIP TO VAILANGANNI for those interested. That means: We leave from Chennai after supper on Wednesday, May 30th, reach the Shrine 31st morning, spend the day there, start back that evening, and get back to Chennai in the morning of Friday, June 1st. We shall find out how many want to go, calculate the cost, and share the expenses (bus up and down, meals on the 31st and a contribution to the Retreat House in Vailanganni for use of their premises during the day). We expect the bus to cost us around Rs 1000 and food and stay in Vailanganni around Rs 500, that is, a total of Rs 1500 per person. Depending on the number and the cost of the bus trip, we shall try to get this trip done for less. This payment can be made in Chennai, after your arrival, but please tick the appropriate box if you want to visit Vailanganni. The travel time is 7-9 hours from Chennai.

What are the payments? (1) Registration Fee for the Assembly: Rs 3000 only. You will be surprised to see that it is a small amount. (The contribution in the previous two Assemblies was Rs 5000. This year’s would have come to Rs 7000). The main reason for the smaller fee is that SRM has agreed to do a number of things free for us. If some money is left after meeting the expenses of the Assembly, we shall use it to help regions affected by natural disasters or to help financially weaker religious orders to send their members for short courses. PLEASE SEND THIS AMOUNT THROUGH A DD IN FAVOUR OF “CONFERENCE OF RELIGIOUS INDIA,” together with your Registration Form duly filled in. (2) Annual Contribution to National CRI: Some of you have paid this already. Many of you must be planning to pay this at the Assembly; that is fine. May I suggest that you add Rs 350 to the amount due, and we shall enter it as your annual subscription fee for MAGNET. (3) Donation of a one page advertisement to MAGNET Magazine: As you know, magazines cannot survive without advertisements. Right now, MAGNET, while being much appreciated, is running at a loss. May I appeal to each of you to contribute a one-page advertisement? The ad rates at the moment are: Rs 8500 (for an inside page), 11000, 12000 and14000 (for the 3 cover pages) for religious (and higher for corporates). Later, you can send us the matter for that ad: Your congregation’s charism, mission and works, or your provinces main areas of ministry, or a spotlight on outstanding members of your order or province. We can all learn much from one another. I suggest and appeal that you donate a one-page ad for this. You can see that the sum is very reasonable. This may be a small sum for a province or order, but together, it will make MAGNET financially viable. I will send you in later posts the themes and speakers of the Assembly, the time-table, etc. The Assembly starts at 9.30 am on May 27th, and ends at 1 pm on May 30th . RETURN TRAINS AND FLIGHTS: You can book your return train journeys and your flights as follows: (1) For those not joining the Chennai Outing: Any time after 5 pm on May 30th (reaching the railway station 30 minutes ahead, and the airport 90 minutes early). (2) For those joining the Chennai Outing: We can drop you at Central Station around 7 pm, and at the airport by 9 pm on May 30th. (So, trains after 8 pm and flights after 10.30 pm are feasible.) (3) For those going to Vailanganni, you can plan on catching your return trains or flights from Chennai after 11 am on June 1st . Be sure that we, of CRI—National, Regional and Local—shall do whatever we can to make your travel and stay memorably pleasant and productive. May the Assembly be not only a time of learning and exchange of ideas, but also an experience of warm and genuine fraternity and friendship. PLEASE SEND US THE COMPLETED REGISTRATION FORM, and send it (with your donation for MAGNET) EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT ATTENDING THE ASSEMBLY. We need this info to update our Documentation. If you have any queries, please feel free to email or phone us. Fraternally in Jesus, Fr Joe Mannath SDB National Secretary, CRI