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