His Eminence Oswald Cardinal Gracias Inaugurates International Conference
On Monday, 08 May 2023, His Eminence Oswald Cardinal Gracias inaugurated the two-day XXV IFSSO International Conference on “Social Media, Cyber-religion and Culture” in the presence of delegates from over 15 countries including Indonesia, Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Fiji, Ethiopia and USA. The Conference, held at St. Andrew’s Conference Hall, Bandra, was organized by International Federation of Social Science Organizations (IFSSO) in cooperation with St. Andrew’s Educational Foundation – Mumbai, Academic Network for Dynamic and Inspired Educators (ANDIE) – India, Grand Academic Portal (GAP) – India, and Masyarakat Sejarawan Indonesia (Indonesian Historian Association) – Bali.
The day began with a pukka Maharashtrian welcome. The arrival of each guest was heralded by the rousing sounds of traditional drums and trumpet, and lezim dance. A sandalwood tikka was applied to the guest’s forehead by ladies wearing vivid nau-vari saris. They were then ushered into the conference hall for the inaugural session which comprised a prayer, lighting of the samai by His Eminence and IFSSO officials, an introduction to the conference by Dr. Preeti Oza, the inaugural address by His Eminence, the keynote address by Fr. Magi Murzello, and addresses by Prof. Nestor Castro Ph.D. (University of the Philippines, Diliman), Dr. I Ketut Ardhana (Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia) and Prof. Dr. Gurudutta Japee (Gujarat University, Ahmedabad). The dignitaries, including His Eminence, were then felicitated with a shawl, books by Fr. Magi Murzello, Dr. Preeti Oza and Prof. Dr. Gurudutta Japee, as well as a painting in Warli art entitled “Cosmopolitan Mumbai” specially created by Dr. Omkar Bhatkar for the Conference.
The inaugural session was followed by a short tea break and parallel technical sessions wherein the delegates presented papers related to any of the themes of the Conference. Nearly 60 papers were presented in both, the offline and online mode. Every delegate was awarded with a participation certificate at the end of their technical session.
