To connect members through app

The Catholic archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly has asked its members to get smartphones, and to be more technology savvy ahead of its plans to get the entire community of one lakh families and its over five lakh members across the world networked through a mobile application that was launched in March this year.

Sebastian Edyanthrath, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, said in a circular that smartphones brought information to one’s fingertips, and it was necessary that members of the archdiocese who did not not have smartphones got them. The circular will be read out in parishes on September 10 during the course of the Sunday Mass. The auxiliary bishop also said that every parish must have access to 3G/4G Internet connection, and be equipped with printers, scanners, etc.

Sources in the archdiocese said that a large number of the archdiocesan members had already used the mobile application launched early this year to access services and information.

But the authorities are keen to bring the whole community within the network by the end of this year. “It will help improve familial and interpersonal relations besides helping the faithful access services from their locations,” sources said.

The Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church is the largest in terms of population in Kerala and is the second largest in India after the Mumbai Archdiocese. Of its 5.16 lakh members, it is estimated that around one lakh members in around 25,000 families live abroad - in the Gulf countries, in Europe, North America, New Zealand and Australia, etc.

Services offered

Sources said that as of now around 70 services could be accessed using the network with each family having a login id and password. “They will be able to apply for certificates, schedule attendance at courses organised by the archdiocese, make payments and donations, trace members of their families, pledge organ donations, and even locate the tomb of a long-dead relative from any part of the world,” sources said.

Expected to link up the entire archdiocese in December, the network took about six years of research and four years of preparations, sources said. Of the 264 parishes where there are priests in residence, 222 have completed the preliminary stage of the programme. The auxiliary bishop said in his circular that nearly 64,000 families and 2.71 lakh members had already registered in the mobile application.

It will help improve familial and interpersonal relations besides helping the faithful access services from their locations