Mission Magazine Summer 2023

A MAGAZINE OF
THE PONTIFICAL MISSION
SOCIETIES
SPRING 2023
BE NOT
AFRAID
Photo credit: Inés San Martín

4
Propagation of the Faith:
BEING NOT AFRAID
8
Society of St. Peter:
THE INVALUABLE ROLE OF
RELIGIOUS SISTERS IN THE FUTURE OF
INDIA’S CHRISTIANS
12
Missionary Union:
DO YOU PRAY FOR YOUR SON
TO BE A PRIEST OR A DOCTOR?
16
MCA:
WELDING A FUTURE,
ONE BED AT A TIME
20
EDITOR’S NOTE
On the cover
With 1.4 billion citizens, India
is the world’s largest country,
and much like the United
States it is home to some 20
million Catholics. The difference
lies in the fact that in this
Asian subcontinent they represent
less than 1.6 percent of
the total population, while here
Catholics are the second largest
religious group, representing
23 percent of all Americans.
Hence, we dedicate an entire
edition of MISSION Magazine
to document the joys and
struggles of India, a land that
first heard the Gospel from the
Apostle St. Thomas.
The Pontifical Mission Societies USA
This is Jeanne Bigard who, together with her mother back in the
19th century, founded The Society of St. Peter the Apostle to
support mission vocations, both priestly and religious. Through
your support, you will be helping 28,000 major seminarians and
a similar number of religious women and men as they prepare for
a life dedicated to Christ and the Gospel.
follow us at @TPMS_USA
PUBLISHER: REV. MSGR. KIERAN E. HARRINGTON,
NATIONAL DIRECTOR
EDITOR/WRITER: INÉS SAN MARTÍN
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL OFFICE OF
THE PONTIFICAL MISSION SOCIETIES
IN COOPERATION WITH DIOCESAN OFFICES IN THE UNITED STATES
©THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH
MEMBER, CATHOLIC MEDIA ASSOCIATION
Receiving duplicate copies?
Please send ALL labels, indicating correct one, to
Circulation Dept., MISSION Magazine
70 West 36 th Street, 8 th Floor, New York, NY. 10018
(212) 563-8700
Visit us at our home on the web:
www.OneFamilyInMission.org
We welcome your ongoing
feedback and your “letters to
the editor,” ever grateful for
your prayers and help. If you
prefer to send an “email to
the editor,” you can send it to
contact@missio.org

Monsignor
Kieran
Harrington
On March 13, we passed the ten-year mark of Pope Francis’s pontificate. You
and I are privileged to share in his repeated call to be missionary disciples.
Allow me to share with you some of the beautiful stories I heard in India.
However, first, it is important to keep in mind that we who labor on behalf
of the Pontifical Mission Societies do not work for an Aid Agency or an NGO
(Non-Governmental Organization). It is true that we seek to alleviate the
suffering whether following the devastating earthquake that shook Turkey
and Syria or the horror of War in Ukraine.
Still, we are, first and foremost, evangelizers. Our mandate is to preach the
word of God and build the universal Church, paying particular attention to
those places where He is still unknown or is shunned, forgotten, or is actively
persecuted.
India is a subcontinent that saw the Gospel arrive in the first century when
the apostle Thomas arrived in this territory. It is the fifth largest economy in
the world, and it has over 1.4 billion people. The Good News has yet to reach
everyone. In many parts of the country, Christ is rejected or forgotten, and
Christians are often discriminated against, often even persecuted, or oppressed.
India’s law rejects caste discrimination, much like race discrimination has
been banned in U.S. law. Nevertheless, in both countries prejudice persists
in culture. In India, you can lose government compensation due to caste
discrimination if you embrace the Gospel’s message. If you’re no longer Hindu,
you’re technically no longer a part of the caste system, hence no longer needing
affirmative action. Far from being accurate, it adds to the discrimination many
Christians face in this country and is a means to discourage people from
converting. Indeed, in the northeastern parts of the country, Christians face
violence from Hindu nationalists.
During our solidarity trip to India, we visited an impoverished neighborhood
in the diocese of Thanjavur. I asked a woman there, a member of the small
Catholic community, what the Church could do for her and her fellow
Christians. She didn’t ask us to deliver food, send doctors, or build a school.
“Father, what we need is a church,” she told us. “If we have a church then we
can come together and pray, and then God will bless our prayers.”
The mission of the Church is to help people encounter Christ by professing
that everyone, no matter their caste or religion, has the same God-given dignity.
We all have intrinsic value. We are all children of
God.
Encountering the person of Jesus transforms
everything. It changes the way we love, seek
justice, and find peace. It gives us deep and
abiding joy.
This joy helps us love our neighbor more deeply,
more selflessly than culture’s norms and prejudices
prescribe. Having encountered Christ, we pour
ourselves out for others. That’s what preaching
the Gospel by word and deed requires. We seek
a justice that transcends the ordinary demands of
justice in deference to God’s mercy, where justice
has no limits. We seek a more profound and
enduring peace than an absence of conflict. When we do all this, we experience
more than transient happiness. We experience absolute, lasting, soulful joy.
This is the sacred work that The Pontifical Mission Societies carry out. We’re
blessed to have been given the responsibility to bring the Gospel to all God’s
children.
As a member of the family that are The Pontifical Mission Societies, we
thought you would appreciate knowing how your prayers and charity are
changing the daily lives of millions in India and worldwide.
Thank you for your time and generosity, and may we remain united in His
mission.
Monsignor Kieran Harrington

4 5
Propagation
of the Faith:
Being not afraid
Some 45 years ago, St.
John Paul II, during his
inauguration Mass - which
coincided with World
Mission Sunday- told the
world: “Do not be afraid.
Open, I say open wide
the doors for Christ. To
His saving power open
the boundaries of states,
economic and political
systems, the vast fields of
culture, civilization, and
development.”
1.4 billion inhabitants.
20 million Catholics (1.6 percent of the population).
174 dioceses.
Receives 3 million USD from The Pontifical Missions
USA.
In missionary territories, meaning those places around the world where the
Catholic Church is too young, too poor, or actively persecuted, being not afraid
and carrying Christ’s saving power to all the realms of life is a request that
takes a whole different meaning.
Take, for instance, India: With 1.4 billion inhabitants, the 20 million Catholics
living here represent less than 1.6 percent of the entire population. Even though
Christ was first introduced in this subcontinent in 52 A.D. when Thomas the
Apostle reached what today is the state of Kerala, most Catholics are converts,
and too many, even today, pay the ultimate price for their faith, much like
Doubting Thomas did two millennia ago.
This August marks the 15th anniversary of the carnage that descended upon
the impoverished Christian minority in Kandhamal, a district of the eastern
Indian state of Odisha. A series of riots led by radical Hindus left roughly 100
people dead, thousands injured, 300 churches and 6,000 homes destroyed, and
50,000 people displaced, many forced to hide in nearby forests where more
died of hunger and venomous snakebites.
The violence was carried out by mobs adorned with saffron headbands,
a sign of right-wing Hindu militancy, and shouting slogans such as “Jai shri
ram!” (Victory to the Hindu god). Attackers wielded rods, tridents, swords,
firearms, kerosene, and even acid. Christians who refused to deny Christ were
buried alive, set ablaze, or gutted in front of their children.
In many cases, the government refused to acknowledge the dead because the
wind had carried the ashes away, and most of those killed were so poor that
they had never even been registered as having been born.
To be sure, the 2008 pogrom was hardly an isolated incident. Violence against
Christians throughout India continues routinely today, although on a smaller
scale. In December, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
expressed “outrage” that India had not been designated a “country of particular
concern” by the U.S. State Department’s religious freedom report, claiming the
omission was tantamount to “turning a blind eye (…) to particularly severe
religious freedom violations.”
For example, Christians are passed on for government jobs. State laws
make it virtually impossible to open new parishes in many regions. The
Dalits -formerly known as untouchables in India’s
caste system- lose the affirmative actions taken by
the national government to make up for historical
oppressions. The government’s justification for
depriving Dalit Christians of their rights is that they
have the support of Christians worldwide.
Yet despite the constant threat of physical violence
faced by India’s Christian minority, according to
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai,
Catholics are a “vibrant community, seen not only
in our attendance at Sunday Mass, but also in the
involvement in different activities.”

6 7
Beyond evangelization, the local Church
has three priorities that the cardinal listed
during an interview with MISSION
Magazine in March: Education, outreach
to rural areas where people have no access
to drinkable water or electricity, and the
empowerment of girls in a country where
child marriage is banned by law but not by
culture.
Throughout India’s 174 dioceses, “self-help” groups focus on providing a
better future by tackling the lack of work opportunities.
The Church is training and paying thousands of animators throughout India
to work with indigenous villagers and Dalit populations. The Constitution
ensures educational interests and provides economic safeguards for tribals, but
corporations have exploited the lack of documentation of ownership to access
their mineral-rich lands for decades.
These animators, teachers and health and social workers who are women
in disproportional numbers, are not necessarily Christian, but they share the
Catholic Church’s commitment to social justice and loving one another. They
face challenges such as child marriage, addiction, and the villagers’ lack of
awareness of the importance of health. They also encourage parents not to treat
their girls differently from their boys and discourage child marriage, fighting
the idea that a girl must be married when she reaches puberty.
As UNICEF reports, India has the largest number of
child brides in the world, and girls are perceived to have
no alternative but to be married off. Animators work
to change that perception by empowering girls and
educating their parents.
Animators also use interactive songs to teach children.
They are proud of their successes, which go beyond
educating boys and girls: 46-year-old Shailaja said the
paraprofessional degree she received from the Archdiocese
of Bombay allows her to ensure her tribal rights are
honored, and she is not afraid of going into government
offices and demanding basic needs, such as toilets for the
villages where she works.
In Tamil Nadu state’s Diocese of Chingleput, Father Raji, a parish priest with
two missions under his care, has a monthly salary of $187, which he often uses
to buy medicines or food for the 35 families in his parish. At the request of these
families, he is working hard to raise the $28,000 needed to build a church at the
St. Francis Xavier mission substation.
Ramaye, a 51-year-old Dalit woman born
Hindu but converted to Christianity long ago,
is among those working to raise funds. She
was forced to marry as a child to her maternal
uncle, who is 30 years her elder - meaning that
she was around 12, and he was 42 when they
married.
“After I encountered Christ, I understood
the dignity of the human person -all of us,
women and men,” Ramaye said. “And I knew
I couldn’t let my three daughters be married
off when they were still girls. All of them were
allowed to marry for love.”
She has been unable to work for months
because she must stay home and care for her
husband. When asked why she was more
worried about raising funds to build a church,
she answered, “When you trust in God, and
praise him with everything that you do,
everything else will be fine.”
“It gives us a great joy to be able to do this as disciples of Jesus,” Cardinal
Oswald said. “I invite you all to come and visit us, see firsthand the work we
are doing, and hopefully partner with us so that we can share some of our
vibrancy with you, but also continue to help the millions here in my country
who rely on your support not only to get to know Christ, but also to survive.”
“If nothing else, let’s partner in prayer: I ask you to pray for the Church
in India, and I will pray for the Church in the United States and in all other
mission countries, in the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is with us. Christ is
with us,” he said.

8
9
India has 174 Dioceses and eparchies.
Society of St. Peter:
The invaluable role of
religious sisters in the future
of India’s Christians
There are more than 50,000 religious
sisters in the country.
In the outskirts of Mumbai, four sisters
from the Daughters of Cross train
teachers who work in 12 different
villages, operate a boarding school for
girls, and accompany people to the
hospital when needed.
rural areas, and others are among the best
of Mumbai’s and New Delhi’s private education
system.
In Vadgaon village, four hours from
downtown Mumbai and one of the mission
territories within this archdiocese, all
the children from 120 families go to the
same public school. However, this rural
area is so far from the government’s attention,
that the state-funded teachers don’t actually teach children to read or
write: “They come in, give the children a snack, and then ignore them the rest
of the day,” said Shailaja, a teacher who has been part of an archdiocesan group
of animators - teachers, health workers and social workers - for the past 14
years. She received her training from the Daughters of the Cross.
When she was 10, Sister Linda Joseph received a kiss on the forehead from
St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta. That was the day she knew she wanted to be a
religious sister, dedicate her life to helping children in need.
“I was blessed in many ways throughout my life,” Sister Linda said. “Mother
Theresa kissing my forehead gave me a sense of peace that I had never experienced
before. I do hope that we can provide our students with some sense of
peace by letting them know that God loves them and that they are not alone.”
Fast-forward three decades, and this Visitation Sister is running the Santwan
Boarding School for children with special needs in the Diocese of Allepey, in
the southern Indian state of Kerala. The students, who have different disabilities,
find in this school a solace that their parents cannot offer due to lack of resources.
In most poor-income households, both parents must work, and often,
as day laborers and marginal farmers.
In this school, children can paint, play sports and even learn classical dance.
The Santwan Boarding School is one of hundreds of schools throughout India
that are managed by Catholic sisters. They vary in size: some are in small

10 11
Four sisters from the
Daughters of the Cross
work in the region of
Alibag, 60 miles from
downtown Mumbai and
including over a dozen
villages such as Vadgaon.
They help train the
animators who work in
these villages, making
sure the children do, in
fact, learn to read and
write.
Sister Albina Murzello, a member of the order, often visits villages and hamlets
or accompanies people when they must go into the city to a hospital, because
most don’t feel confident enough to engage in conversation with a medical
professional.
These four Daughters of the Cross also operate a boarding school for girls
aged 5–15 so that they can continue to get an education when their parents,
most of whom are seasonal workers, move from one region to another in
search of sustenance.
Although the order subsidizes
much of the work of these
four sisters, they do rely on the
support they receive each year
from The Pontifical Mission Societies
through the Society of St.
Peter.
In the Archdiocese of Pondicherry
and Cuddalore, the Sisters
of St. Aloysius Gonzaga are
also changing the lives of many.
They have been tasked with
running 80 self-help groups
throughout the dioceses, and they help thousands of people, mostly women,
out of poverty. Through the help of the sisters and trained profesisionals, they
learn to make products so that they can sustain themselves and their families.
These include crafts, from pencil holders to dolls, candles and soaps,
eco-friendly pens wrapped in paper instead of plastic, and jewelry.
One of the women who has been a part of this self-help group for the past
four years said, “I don’t know where I would be today had it not been for the
help of the Sisters. They gave me the tools I needed to survive, and to do so
with dignity, putting my talents at the service of others.”

12 13
Missionary Union:
Do you pray for your son to
be a priest or a doctor?
to take care of all the needs seminarians
have,” said Father Aniceto
Pereira, who runs the seminary.
“We rely on your help to send some
of our seminarians to further their
studies in Rome. This is particularly
important for us, because we need
well educated and trained formators
to elevate the education of our
priests here.”
The St. Pius X College.
Diocesan seminary of the Archdiocese
of Bombay.
Founded in the 1960s.
It has 100 students.
10 new priests are ordained each year.
Nevertheless, even though paying the bills at the end of the month is a constant
looming concern for Father Aniceto, he said that what the seminary needs
the most are prayers.
As the 19th century was ending, French lay woman Jeanne Bigard and her
mother, Stephanie, received a letter from a French bishop who was serving in
Japan. He wrote asking them for prayers and help: more than 50 young men
were preparing for the priesthood, and he was struggling to provide for them
and the growing number candidates to the priesthood.
In 1889, Jeanne and Stephanie established the Society of St. Peter Apostle to
support mission vocations, both priestly and religious. In the first year of its
foundation, the Society aided about 2,700 seminarians.
Today, 28,000 major seminarians, mostly in Asia and Africa, receive an average
annual subsidy of $700 per student; assistance is also provided for men and
women religious novices.
One of these seminaries is the St Pius X Archdiocesan Seminary of Bombay,
where 100 young men are studying for the priesthood.
“We are very thankful for the financial support from The Society of St. Peter
Apostle because it is not possible for the Christian community in Mumbai
“We want to have a vibrant generation of diocesan priests who witness their
faith throughout their ministry, and we rely on the prayers of Catholics in
the United States because we are a very small minority here in Mumbai, and
in Asia as a whole,” he said. “We are inspired by the vibrancy of other local
churches, and we are thankful for the support we receive from the universal
Church in the form of prayers and missionaries, ready to leave everything behind
so that others can follow Christ.”

14 15
Not all of those studying at the seminary are here because they are called to
the life of a priest: in recent years, the Archdiocese led by Cardinal Oswald Gracias
launched a pilot program allowing a handful of women to attend the seminary,
acknowledging that many parishes rely on lay leaders for everything that
isn’t the sacraments.
Blessy Rebello is one of these students.
Married and mother of five, she approached
the seminary following the incessant
questions her children had about
their faith, many of which she couldn’t
answer in a way that was satisfying.
When she found out that training was
available for her too, she talked about it
with her family - since it was going to be
time-consuming - and they all agreed it
was something she needed to do.
In her third year of theology now, she
states, “I still don’t have all the answers,
but at least I know where and how to
search for them.”
She says one of the biggest struggles
the Church has today is that “people are
learning to live without the Church, finding
solace in their phones, through social
media or other things. We often hear that
people simply didn’t come back to Mass
after the COVID-19 pandemic. However,
it must make us wonder what formation
they had if after they skipped Mass a few
Sundays, they threw the baby with the
bathwater.”
Moreover, there’s also the fact that most
parents no longer see having a daughter
become a religious sister or a son in the
priesthood as something good.
“We need to be better parents, acknowledging
the need and value
of having holy priests and nuns in
the Church,” she said. “Oftentimes,
when a person prays for more vocations
to the priesthood, they do so
with a caveat ‘make my son a doctor,
but the neighbors’ son a holy priest’.
What about you? Do you pray for a
religious vocation within your family,
or for a doctor?”
Brother Christopher Fernandez
says he began his path towards becoming a priest during his “youth” (he’s 25
now!), participating in his parish’s activities: “We had truly amazing priests,
who touched me deeply and inspired me.”
During his discernment process, he was particularly worried about not being
sufficiently qualified to become a priest, but Corinthians 2:1-5 gave him the
answer he needed, for “God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called.”

16 17
MCA:
Welding a future,
St. Francis Xavier School for Boys.
190 students.
Eight trades.
1,108 hospital beds built by March
2023.
According to Father John Peter,
the principal of the training center,
“the people here are economically
very poor, but they have a faith that
can move mountains.”
Most of the student’s parents are
agricultural day laborers, which
means they work approximately
100 days per year, with a guaranteed
yearly income of $400 that comes from the government. With this, their
families subsist on barely $1 per day. As carpenters, they would make twice as
much, and they could work every day of the year.
one hospital bed at a time
Located in the Indian diocese of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), about 2,000 miles
south of Mumbai, the St. Francis Xavier School for Boys teaches young men
eight different trades guaranteed to give them a future as carpenters, mechanics,
welders, book binders, machinists, or electricians.
There are 80 teens from all over the region living in the school, and 110 other
students from the city of Trichy, all of them eager to learn. Students here are
aware that the skills they are learning will allow them to make at least 1,000 rupees
a day ($9), significantly more than what most of their parents make today.
Founded in 1906 by the Salesians, the first missionaries to reach this region
of India, the school today is run by the diocese, and receives support from The
Pontifical Mission Societies USA. This help is particularly channeled through
the Missionary Childhood Association, which, through programs such as the
Mite Boxes, helps bring school-aged children in the United States closer to the
realities of children in other parts of the world.
The St. Francis Xavier School is run by Catholic priests and a dozen teachers,
many of whom are engineers. The process is very hands-on for the students,
who will have gained hundreds of hours of experience in the trade(s) they
choose by the time they graduate from the three-year program.

18 19
Many of the students grew up seeing the
works of the alumni: The welding class has
fulfilled orders from both local parishes and
the local hospital (they make the beds used
by most health centers in the area, with over
1,000 units already in use); the carpentry students
have made the desks and chairs used
in the schools; the parish bulletins of the entire
diocese are printed by the students in
this school at the Don Bosco print house.
“Those who are blessed enough to be
able to attend this school understand that it
is, in fact, a blessing, an opportunity many
children aspire to,” said Milton Maxwell, an
alumnus who now teaches welding. “Unfortunately,
we have more applicants than
places. We are hoping to add space in the
dormitories, but the funds are scarce.”
The priests, and even a handful of seminarians,
give lessons on both faith and morality,
putting special attention to promoting the
God-given human dignity we all have. Besides
fostering children’s personal faith, this helps
break the cycle of violence against girls in a
country where child marriage of girls is banned
by law but not by culture.
The city of Trichy is credited with being the
best livable city and the cleanest city of Tamil
Nadu, as well as the fifth safest city for women
in India. Nevertheless, throughout this region,
most Christians are converts from Hinduism
and Dalits, formerly known as the untouchables
in India’s caste system. The government
has set up a series of affirmative actions to help
the Dalits, but these possibilities are taken away
the moment they embrace Christ.
Evangelization is “very difficult,”
said Father John. The government
continues to increase the regulations
for new parishes, and the diocese
risks losing the schools if new parishes
are built without meeting often
arbitrary regulations.
“But where a door closes, the Lord
always helps us open a window,” he
said.
“People here are very poor, especially
Catholics,” said Father John
Peter. “They work the land, but they
don’t own it, and the dread of eviction is constant. But we are trying to give the
younger generations a better education so that they can have a future that is
better than their past.”

20 21
Editor’s
Note
The first week of March, I had the opportunity to be in India, traveling all
over the country together with Monsignor Kieran Harrington, journalist Barb
Fraze, who wrote some incredible stories for OSV, and Katie Ruvalcaba, a
young mother of five who has a natural talent with words, whom you can
see in the picture above. I decided to give her my column in this MISSION
Magazine edition because her thoughts are too good not to be included.
Before doing so, however, I do want to personally thank each and every one
of you for the support, positive feedback and generosity to the last number of
MISSION Magazine, honoring late Pope Benedict XVI. You inspire me to want
to go out and find stories to share with the amazing family that is The Pontifical
Mission Societies. Thank you for being part of our family.
In Katie’s words:
Since I became a Catholic with a firm understanding of what the Eucharist is,
I’ve prayed for Christ to help me recognize Him better than I recognize my own
reflection. I’ve prayed to see Him in the host, in the better moms who make me
feel inadequate, in the people I disagree with politically, in my enemies and in
my friends. This spring, while visiting the mission territories throughout India
with The Pontifical Mission Societies, I saw Christ in so many faces I simply
lost count.
I saw Christ in a little girl named Rivisti. Rivisti is about a year old, super
cute in her yellow dress with red flowers. She was at church with her grandma
and her two older sisters. While the grown-ups were focused on what was
being said by the very important Monsignor in our midst, Rivisti was making
a break down the center of the church and towards the rickety back door. Her
big sister, who couldn’t have been more than 6 years old herself, ran after her.
Rivisti’s feet barely left the ground as her sister dragged her back to their seat
next to their grandmother. Rivisiti’s family and community had gathered to
meet us not to talk about their poverty or sadness, but to tell us of their need for
a church. We could see blue sky through holes in the roof, and the tile floor was
uneven. I heard Christ speak through the mouth of Rivisti’s neighbors: “When
we have a church, we are together. When we have a church, we are safe.”
Later, in Kerala, I saw Christ lying in a hospice bed. The woman’s eyes were
clouded over with cataracts, and there were no teeth left in her mouth. She
bowed to me while laying on her side and started crying when I took her hands
in mine. I didn’t speak her language, but her nurse told me she was saying,
“No one ever comes to see me.” I did not get a chance to learn her name. She
didn’t even know it anymore; it had been stolen by dementia. It didn’t matter
though; I could see in her face that she was Christ. The nurse had the love of
Christ pouring from her as she walked from bed to bed in the mission hospice
facility where she ministered to each face of Christ, regardless of their ability
to pay.
In each place I visited I was able to see Christ so clearly. This was something
I’d prayed for, and I can tell you without hesitation that once you’ve seen
Christ you cannot unsee Him. Every hand I held I prayed for God’s protection
over that person. Every church I visited I asked God to show me how to give
them the funds they needed. I returned home and begged my pastor to allow
me to speak on World Mission Sunday (the third Sunday of October). If people
could only know that Christ is sitting on the floor in Chennai, they’d donate. If
everyone could see Christ serving the dying in Kerala, they’d pray. Once you
realize that each of these people in the mission fields is Christ, the very people
he came to bring to Himself and become one with, it’s impossible to look away.
So, my friends, pray with me. Donate with me. I’ve seen Him. He’s in the
missions.

follow us at @TPMS_USA