In our Church set-up, we have a Body of Consult at the level of every Diocese, Province, Religious Community and Institution. Similarly, for every registered society there is a Governing Body (and General Body too). Though they are different, quite often many of us mistake the Consult of the Diocese or Province for the Governing Body. In practice, we substitute the Governing Body with the Consult. The functioning and deliberations of the Consult are taken as the functioning and minutes of the Governing Body. But in reality, it is a misnomer to call the Consult, the Governing Body. The structure and functions of both are different. In many situations we place undue emphasis on Consult and totally ignore the Governing Body and its functioning, which is a basic requirement for the registered society. Some of us are totally ignorant of the existence of the registered society itself. We give so much importance to the Consult, but very little to the registered society and its Governing Body, which is actually responsible for the legal justification of all our works that fall under the society. But for the registered society, we cannot do the apostolic works we are doing. As we know, at present we are all faced with various issues related to the statutory compliance related to the registered society. Hence, it is the need of the hour that we pay attention to our lop-sided approach and way of functioning. Here is an attempt to rectify such a lop-sided approach.
Fr Alex G SJ
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