The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-03-18
NEED OF MISSIONARIES FOR
INDIA.

The following extract from recent
letter of Rev. J. T. Roche, LII. D., who
is making a tour of the world and
studying the religious conditions in the
countries visited is interesting from a
missionary point of view. 1t is written
from Bangalore, India. He says:
spent the greater part of Sunday
with his Lordship, Bishop Barthe, S. j.,
of Trichinopoly. He has three hundred
thousand Christians in his Diocese,
and there is a fine Jesuit college in the
town. There are thirty-seven Dioceses
and vicariates in India proper and the
total Catholic population is something
over 100000. We can thus see that
his Diocese is one of the largest in the
country, and was evangelical by st.
Francis Xavier and by the great mis-
sionary De Nobili. He told me many
touching stories of mission life in his
own territory. One of his priests, Fa-
Their Dillinger, at Kamuti, has forty-two
villages to look after, and altogether
he has only four churches. Father
Louis at Pamben Island, has only q
palm-leaf home and four mud chapels.
He would like to build a chapel at
Arrappokottar, which is an important
station for an American foreign mis-
sion society, but he is waiting for some
generous souls in Christian lands.
And by the way, the Jesuit Fathers at
Madura want $500 printing press and
a ruling machine for their industrial
school. l promised to make their
needs known, and will consider myself
as having done a great service to re-
ligion if some of my readers are moved
to do something for these good Fa-
Tiers. Neither America nor Canada
thus far has done much for foreign
missions and the people are only wax
ing to the need of saving their own ne
elected brethren. ''It is time" said
Bishop Barthe, 'that you began send
ing us missionaries. You ought to
have seminary for foreign missions
in each of these two great Catholic
countries. And your Catholic people
do not know enough about our work
here. Please tell them how our mis-
sionaries live. You have seen the mud
novels in which they have to sleep, and
in many instances to offer UP the Holy
Sacrifice. When we convert village
we must pay for everything. We must
buy a piece of land, build church and
home for the priest. Now the school
is very important. The people are
very anxious to have them, for with
a little education they can cope with
the tax-collectors and others who now
defraud them. We must put cate
chist there who will remain all the
time. A teacher and a catechist will
each cost us ten rupees or $3.50 a
month. Sometimes a priest writes me
saying: If had five hundred rupees I
could convert whole village, and very
often I do not have it to give to him.
France was our great benefactor in the
olden days, but she has now her own
problems to solve. Give us the mis-
sionaries and means and the results
today in India would be truly astonish-
ing. Last year we baptized about two
thousand adult converts, and 5,164 chill
dren in danger of death. It is great
consolation to us to know that we have
opened Heaven to those little inno-
cents. Then we have Christian women
going up and down the Diocese to
whom we pay six or seven rupees a
month. They help families by giving
proper remedies to the sick, and they
hold in hi0h ncfnnro
These baptize dying pagan children
and pave the way for our catechists
and missionaries. We have our Euro
pean nuns, the Daughters of the Cross,
who go everywhere in the villages,
when they can spare the time. They
children, and alleviate much suffering
We have 200 native nuns, who have
schools for boys and girls, dispensar:
les, orphanages, old peoples homes
and as they are used to poverty from
childhood, can endure more privations
than our European Sisters. I want
more nuns here and l want them
badly. | wish God would inspire your
American communities with the idea
of sending little band of Sisters here
and there throughout India to help
us. This is the way Christian civilza
ton was established in other lands
We will have great Pentecostal turn
ing to the Church here, if Europe and
America, but particularly America
could only be made to hear the Mace
DOMAIN call to come over and help us.