The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-12-27
A LETTER FROM BRITISH INDIA.
Franciscan Monastery,
Bellary, Madras, India.

Bellary, Madras, India.
November IL, 1913.
Dear Rev. Father:
Towards the end of last year you
very kindly allowed me to make an
appeal in your columns in behalf of
our St. Johns institution for Telugu
boys. 1t was pressing appeal for
aid to provide the badly needed extra
accommodation. And the result? Well,
somehow my plea found favor, as you
know, with only two good priests, and
they sent us dollar each. $500 is by
no manner of means trife-indeed,
no amount, however small, can be a
trifle to us-and, oh! how 1 wish some
more of your readers had similarly
come to our aid! Perhaps there was
some mistake or other on my part in
the mode of my appeal; perhaps most
of your readers were deferred by an
undue consideration of what they were
inclined to look upon as the small
ness" of the aims they could spare;
perhaps the cumulative power of
pennies slipped from their memory.
The result is that the above two dol
lars represent the direct response to
my appeal in The Catholic Bulletin.
$50 / have to think; for, don't know
if any of your readers have sent us
any aid anonymously or otherwise
through the Propagation of Faith So
ciety.)
But surely, Father, should not get
q
contrary, l should continue to ask,
continue to knock-loud and long.
May l, therefore, request you will be
kindly pleased to allow me to again
seek little space in your columns so
that l may a second time give express
sion to one of our great wants and beg
your readers-beg every one of them
to help us according to their con-
venience? AS may be gathered from
the weighty words of our Archbishop,
the Most Rev. J. Aelen, your good peo-
pie may be quite sure that in sending
us what aims they can spare they will
be promoting a most deserving cause
in this heather land | may repeat
that besides it's share in the Christian
education of our Telugu Catholic lads
our St. Johns Institution is, in its
humble way, serving also as nursery
for vocations for the priesthood and
religious life and as catechumenate.
May 1 not confidently hope that this
present appeal of mine will meet with
much better response than its pred
ecessor? Thanks to the activity of
your American branches of the Propa-
CATION of the Faith Society and thanks,
also, to the cooperation of the Catholic
press, interest in the Foreign Missions
that is, interest in the eternal well
fare of the hundreds of millions of
souls in heather lands-has begun to
take deep root in the United States
and the generosity of American Catho-
lies is steadily helping the good
work on and is putting many a poor
missionary in India and everywhere
under a debt of deep gratitude. Your
people are daily realizing the grandeur
of helping the work of Foreign Mis-
sions.
In India, at any rate in Southern
India, the American Protestant agen-
cies are carrying on most active
propagandism by means of their
wealth; their supply of money seems
to be endless and all their undertake
ings-missions, colleges, schools,
hostels, hospitals, etc.,-ar started
and maintained on a big scale. They
came, comparatively speaking, only
yesterday and yet how they have
spread themselves all over the land!
Why should the Catholics of America
not do something of the kind here?
Why should they let American gen.
crosby be represented by American
Professionalism alone? 1t is true they
have numerous calls on their purse in
the States and cannot be expected to
do big things there and in other coun
tries. But then, the Catholic mission
er does not think of crying for whole
loaves of bread; he asks for only a
few crumbs and occasionally, perhaps
for crust. Oh! if your good people
would give a cent to India for every
dollar that their Protestant fellow
countrymen give, what great amount
of good could be done for the glory OF
God and the salvation of souls!
1 will here stop philosophising and
in conclusion again earnestly beg your
good readers to come to our aid with
any aims they can spare-much if they
can give much, and little if they can
afford but a little. In any case lei
them please send us something, even
if it appears to them to be no more
than a mere trifie. Everybody can give
a few cents, at least; and if all give
what a goodly sum can be gathered tc
help us out of our present difficulties
Yours respectfully and gratefully in
Christ,
BRO. ]. ANTHONY, o. S. F.,
Superior.
P. S.-Alms may be sent through
any Office of the Propagation of Faitf
Society, at 627 Lexington Avenue
New York City, U. S. A., etc., Oh
through The Catholic Bulletin, st