In the Archdiocese of Colombo there shall be established and kept functioning Archdiocesan Commission -

These commissions are for the :

(01)Biblical Apostolate; 
(02) Liturgy and Sacramental life; ;
(03) Religious Men and Women;
(04) Laity – with special Sub-Committees for family/ women/ youth/ children; 
(05) Missionary Activity; A special Sub Committee on Blessed Joseph Vaz
(06) Catechetical Apostolate;
(07) Education; 
(08) Justice, Peace, Human Development and Integrity of Creation;
(09) Social Communication;
(10) Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue; and
(11) Strategic Planning and Evaluation. (ACSPE)

Purpose
Each Commission has a specific task to accomplish in accordance with the designation given to the particular commission.

Each Commission is to serve, recommend and suggest courses of pastoral action in keeping with the spirit of the APP to promote the Pastoral goals of the Archdiocese.

The Archdiocesan Commission should try to accommodate the representatives of linguistic groups by making allowances for them to express their point of view in the language they are competent.

Archdiocesan Commissions

01. Archdiocesan Commission for the Biblical Apostolate

Target 1: All renewal of the Archdiocese including that of the priestly formation and renewal is to be based on the Word of God and participation in the Sacraments
Target 2: To promote the Bible in every home, to provide necessary guidelines for daily scripture readings in Sinhala Tamil and English
Target 3: To train animators in each parish to counter the fundamentalist threat
Target 4 : To organize Scripture classes at Parish Level through the services of the Graduates of the BJVDD

02. Archdiocesan Commission for Liturgy and Sacramental Life

Target 1: Consciously enhance the Eucharistic experience by providing varied, yet doctrinally sound, approaches.
Target 2: The priestly life and ministry is to be transformed by the liturgy 
Target 3: Educate parishioners in the Liturgy (structure, scripture, and preaching),
Target 4: Sacraments, devotional practices, and prayer so that the faithful may be able to participate fully and meaningfully 
Target 5: Catholic liturgy be related to life, needs, and character of the parish community to enhance the quality of Christian life and be effective witness to be salt of the earth and light of the world.
Target 6 The Liturgy will be the basis to build the Small Christian Communities in the parish
Target 7: The celebration of the sacraments in the parishes in order to give glory to God and consequently to sanctify the faithful
Target 8: The Sunday Liturgical celebration should be made more meaningful so as to enliven the parochial community

03. Archdiocesan Commission for Religious Men and Women

Target 1: The Diocesan Clergy and Religious should work in close collaboration and there should be no distinction between them.
Target 2:: Religious women to be accepted and incorporated in the diocesan set up.
Target 3: The Religious men and women be appointed to the Diocesan Commissions.
Target 4: Religious congregations do form parts of the Pastoral Plan and should therefore be part of the decision making process.

04. Archdiocesan Commission for Lay Faithful with Sub-Committees for Family, Women, Youth and Children

Target 1: Diocesan Director of the Laity be appointed by the Archbishop and his task to be fully operative in the Laity commission and to coordinate all the Lay Apostolate movements within the Archdiocese
Target 2: The expertise of the various Catholic professionals, - lawyers, doctor, artistes, politicians are to be utilized.
Target 3: The coordination of the lay apostolate groups by having regular meetings of the respective
leaders. All the associations and the Movements have to submit reports and financial statements to
the Commission
Target 4: The training of chaplains for the lay apostolate movements is a felt need
Target 5: The laity are encouraged to be involved in the secular field and they should bear witness to the values of the Kingdom in their respective fields.
Target 6: To convene a meeting of all Catholic politicians in the Western Province to strengthen their faith and to educated them in Catholic Social Teachings - CST

4. 1 The Sub-Committee for the Family Apostolate

Target 1: Each parish should have Family Life Committee of the PPC
Target 2: To see to the pastoral care of the Mix-marriages through training of Animator- couples to take care of them.
Target 3: To have trained counsellors in every parish. to help estranged families and to animate the future families on Christian parenthood.
Target 4: To reschedule the family visitation programmes in all parishes
Target 5: To organize post-cana conferences in the parishes

2. The Sub-Committee for Women

Target 1: The resources of women to be utilized for building the Kingdom
Target 2: The problems women face in society be assessed objectively by the Sub-Committee
Target 3: Awareness programmes for women discriminated at work places and to seek redress if their rights are violated
Target 4: To establish a Women’s Desk in the Archdiocese

4. 3 The Sub-Committee for the Youth Apostolate

Target 1: The Diocesan youth chaplain could have a link with the National Youth Service Council (Government) and our Youth could be involved in their activities and give a Christian witness
Target 2: The resources available within the church must be geared to the formation of the youth leaders
Target 3: Training of youth chaplains is a need. There should in-service training for them.
Target 4: To have links with the Vocational training Institutes run by the Church or by NGOs

4. 4 The Sub-Committee for the Children’s Apostolate

Target 1: To make the parents aware that their children should join one or the other movements (Holy Childhood or La. Kri. Vi.) which give them lasting values which stand in good stead in the later years of their life..
Target 2; The creative talents of the children be unearthed
Target 3: The Children’s day conducted in the Archdiocese be properly harnessed not only through Dhahma Pasals but also with the movements of the children

05. Archdiocesan Commission for Missionary Activity

Target 1: Those who are inspired by the Word of God cannot keep the Good News for themselves but must share with others their experience
Target 2: To visit the families, the sick in hospitals and in their homes, prisoners in prisons, the poor and afflicted and encouraging them to live their faith and inculcating the spirit of hope
Target 3: To realize that Social Action forms a part of evangelization
Target 4: To train local volunteers who could become missionaries in “mission areas” of the Diocese catering to the scattered Catholics and others living in diaspora situations
Target 5: To make use of the graduates of the BJVDDN in the process of evangelization countering the menace of fundamentalism
Target 6: To liaise with the Commission of the Biblical Apostolate to help people the use of the Bible in their homes

2 Archdiocesan Sub-Committee on Blessed Joseph Vaz

Target 1: The life story of Bl. Joseph Vaz should be given publicity and prayer campaign should be organized to popularize the devotion
Target 2: The missionary methods of Bl. Joseph Vaz and Fr. Jacome Gonsalvez need to be recognized and popularized
Target 3: Work towards the canonization of Beloved Bl. Joseph Vaz by spreading the devotion and invoking his intercession.

06 . Archdiocesan Commission for Catechetical Apostolate

Target 1: There is a need for an evaluation of the Catechetical Apostolate at the parish, deanery and at the Archdiocesan levels,
Target 2: The Catechists need spiritual formation. Teaching Catechism is different to the teaching of other subjects like Mathematics, Science or Arts. The experience of the Lord by the Catechist is important. He/she should not only know about the Lord but know Him deeply and profoundly so that this experience could be transmitted to the students.
Target 3: The adult-catechesis is an important aspect of the overall, ongoing formation which should be taken care of by the Archdiocesan Catechetical Apostolate
Target 4: To foster vocations to the priesthood and religious life through the Daham Pasalas

07. Archdiocesan Commission for Education

Target 1: To give the attention to the Catholic Students in Government schools especially in their religious formation.
Target 2; The PPs should have close relationships with the Government schools
Target 3: The need to maintain, sustain and promote the standards of excellence in the field of education in the Private Schools.
Target 4: Training of teachers- lay religious and priests, should be done systematically and to give an emphasis to their vocation as a Catholic teacher
Target 5: To monitor the Catholic Students and teachers attending the International Schools .
Target 6: Aquinas and other Institutes of higher education should be agents of inculcating Christian values and should aim at forming the future leaders of the country.
Target 7: To appreciate the contribution of the BJVDDN and promote its activities and to enroll more students
Target 8: To encourage the youth to enter the teaching profession and to enable the facility of carrier guidance for children in higher grades.
Target 9: To organize the Catholic teachers in Private and Government schools
Target 10: To seek government appointments for the Volunteer teachers
Target 11; To seek more admissions to the Vidya Pitas from the Western Province especially for Teaching of Religion

08. Archdiocesan Commission for Justice, Peace, Human Development and Integrity of Creation

Target 1: To realize that Justice, Peace, Human Development and Integrity of Creation is part and parcel of the Evangelization process (Justice in the World no. 6)
Target 2: To make the membership fully aware of the Catholic Social Teachings and to dispel the myth that it is the best kept secret of the Church’
Target 3: To promote human rights and to support the people whose rights are violated and hindered.
Target 4: The activities of the Seth Sarana be recognized and there is the need to go beyond welfare activities and to include social justice and integral development along with the integrity of creation
Target 5: There can be sector-wise apostolates included within the commission – viz, Fishermen; Farmers; FTZ workers; informal workers; drug addicts; plantation workers; slum apostolate; Trafficking among women and children; IDPs; Victim of HR violations; Migrant workers and their dependents
Target 6: To have special thrust to form Human Development Committees in the PPC
Target 7: To initiate social animation groups within parishes to study CST
Target 8: To give legal aid to the poor victims of injustices

09. Archdiocesan Commission for Social Communication

Target 1: Evaluate all types of Media and how they are used to disseminate falsehood or half truths. The communication media is an effective means to proclaim the values of the Kingdom .
Target 2: To diffusion of Catholic Literature and to organize Libraries at the Parish Level. And to organize a mobile van for this purpose
Target 3: To appoint an official spokesperson for the Church to be vigilant of anti-Christian activities. The need to give adequate responses in asserting the truth. He could work in liaison with the ACSPE
Target 4: To organize press week in the Archdiocese
Target 5: To give training to deanery coordinators and to begin media units within the deanery and in the parishes.

10. Archdiocesan Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue (IRD)

Target 1: To conscientize the clergy on Ecumenism and Inter-Religious Dialogue so that some may take an interest on these two subjects
Target 2: To visit all other Christian churches within the parish to visit all other Christian Church to establish ecumenical relationships
Target 3: To visit other centres of worship within the parish so as to establish inter-religious harmony at the grass-root level
Target 4: To harness the students of the BJVDDN to help in this field of ecumenism and inter-faith dialogue

11. Archdiocesan Commission for Strategic Planning and Evaluation, (ACSPE)

Target 1: This is the pivotal commission for the implementation of the APP. It can also be called as the Operation desk where all the necessary information collected, analysed and directives are issued.
Target 2: To set the priorities in motion as mentioned in the APP and that which is presented from all the Archdiocesan Commissions
Target 3: The task is to collect reports from Parishes, Institutions, Schools and Lay apostolate groups.
Target 4: To evaluate the success of the Commissions and to establish time frames and to determine outcomes and begin again
Target 5 : Each Parish, Institute or School and Lay apostolate groups to have their own plans in keeping with the APP and submit them to this commission
Target 6: Among the several evaluation tools one Method of evaluation is SWOT analysis to be used Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats at all levels
Target 7: The experts in the field of Strategic planning to be invited so that results could be analysed to achieve the desired goals.

+ Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith
Archbishop of Colombo