KURIGRAM, DINAJPUR DIOCESE

	DINAJPUR DIOCESE

Kurigram
“A SMALL DROP IN THE SEA, BUT A GREAT START"

Kurigram, Bangladesh : January 18, 2003: A one daylong Inter-religion meeting was held at Kurigram town on the topic “Human development and spirituality” on the 18th January 2003. Mr. Abul Mosaddek Azad (Additional District Commissioner of Kurigram District), Bishop Moses Costa CSC (Bishop of Dinajpur Diocese), Deputy Director of Islamic Foundation of Kurigram, several wise man of different religions and about 50 participants from different religions were preset in this meeting.

The meetings started with the welcoming speech of Mr. Abul Mosaddek Azad, the ADC of Kurigram at 9:30 am. He expressed his feeling and told that this is first time this kind of meeting is being held in Kurigram.

There were three speakers. Md. Mojammelul Hauqe spoke from Islam religion. His topic was “Human development and spirituality according to the Islamism”. Md. Mojammelul Hauqe told, “If one person has no spirituality, he or she can not give a good leadership.” During his speech Md. Mojammelul showed how the Islam is giving much more dignity in human development. “Do to others, what you like to do to yourself” Md. Mojammelul said.

Sree Nripendro Nath Sarker spoke on “Human development and spirituality according to the Hinduism”. Sree Nripendro mentioned that man is carrying the holy sprit of God among himself. By serving the mankind, we can serve the God. He continued, “There are two types of body of a human being; one is visible and one is invisible. The spirituality is related with the invisible body of human being.”

Fr. Enzo Corba, PIME gave his speech on “Human development and spirituality according to the Christianity”. Fr. told that he has been staying in Bangladesh from since 1958 and he noticed much more changes in Bangladesh. Fr. told, “All kind of productions are increased, but till now people are in need. Because we don’t want to share my belongings with my brothers. If we treat all the mankind as my brothers and sisters, there will be no more poverty”.

The deputy director of Islamic Foundation mentioned his willing to arrange such inter-religion seminars in Kurigram district from his office.

In the concluding word, Bishop Moses Costa CSC told that by this meeting we came closer to each other. “It is a small drop in the sea, but a great starting in Kurigram” bishop mentioned. Bishop continued, “Wherever the Catholic Church goes, it starts to provide three major services; health service, education service and teaching of morality.”

Fr. Marcus Murmu shared his opinion saying, “Today we just came to be friend to each other. If we continue this friendship, all the service of the Catholic Church will come along with us.”

This inter-religion meeting was arranged by the Dinajpur Diocese and sponsored by Caritas Dinajpur Region. The meeting ended at 3:00 pm. END

Notes :
1) Kurigram District is the territorial area of Dinajpur Diocese. It is about 130 KM from Dinajpur Bishop’s House. There is now only one Catholic Family staying more than 15 years. Mr. Robert Rozario from Dhaka archdiocese came here for his job and staying here for more than 15 years. The Dinajpur Diocese has purchased a piece of land in Kurigram town and planning to start a mission centre in that area. The people of Kurigram are mainly Muslim and few are Hindu. Many people are living in CHAR (river island) and during the rainy season, the people suffer a lot.

2) Md. Mojammelul Hauqe is the Principal of “Kurigram Alia Madrasa” (an Islamic educational instituted) and he about 55 years old. Sree Nripendro Nath Sarker is the Principal of “Ulipur Baidic Mohabiddyapith” (a college for Hindus) of Kurigram. He is about 50 years old. Fr. Enzo Corba is a PIME priest. He is the director of Singra Spiritual Centre, a spiritual centre of Dinajpur Diocese. He was born in 05-03-1931 and ordained as priest on 28-06-1956. Fr. Marcus Murmu is the Chancellor of Dinajpur Diocese.