Many have asked me if I had “fun.”  Fun is not quite the word that captures the experience.  More descriptive words are “meaningful”, “insightful,” “eye-opening,” “heart breaking,” and “inspiring.”  Our group was in India for a total of 10 days with most of our time spent in Vijayawada in the State of Andre Pradesh, where Fr. Raju is from. We were blessed to visit his remote village and meet his family and his mother, who still lives in the house he grew up in.

During our time there, we witnessed the incredible service of the Catholic Church carried out by what Bishop Joseph there called his “Army of Angels”. This army includes 150 priests and 900 sisters who are living the words of the Gospel to serve as “doers of the Word and not hearers only,” bringing loving rays of hope to a region where Christians make up less than 6% of the population.

We visited missionary schools, orphanages, parishes, and convents, including a house of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, who are taking care of abandoned severely crippled children. We visited the Tomb of St. Thomas and a Shrine of St. Mary where several miracles have occurred, and we participated in medical clinics serving remote villagers associated with the non-profit NOBA foundation co-founded by Fr. Raju and a group of India doctors with financial assistance from his former Parishioners in Canada.

Thanks to funds provided by some parishioners in connection with our trip, everywhere we went we distributed gifts or donations to these various charitable communities. These included backpacks, school supplies, bicycles, and candy to over 1,700 children, sewing machines to villagers as part of life skills empowerment, and blankets and medical supplies distributed at the medical clinics. All of the contributions went to these causes, as we all paid for our own travel expenses.  

Many of the children who met us with joy would be discarded by Indian society because they belong to the lowest caste, known as untouchables. Without the educational assistance and housing provided by the Catholic Church, men would be destined for backbreaking labor in the rice paddies, marriage in early teens for the girls, or worse– human trafficking.  

Thanks to the priests and nuns in the Diocese of Vijayawada, thousands of children are receiving education, healthcare, and, most importantly, dignity.  

One example is the St. Mary and Christopher English Medium School, founded by Fr. Raju’s friend Fr. Dominic in 2007 with a boarding house orphanage. It now also has classrooms supporting over 1,200 students, and a new hospital. This impactful, remote, rural campus was made possible by a network of donors primarily from the U.K., where Fr. Dominic, also from this region, was sent to serve as a priest three decades ago.

Another of these priests is Fr. Don Bosco (who took this name when he converted to Catholicism from Hinduism), leader of a Catholic ministry called Talitacumi Unnati, named after Mark 5:41 where Jesus said to a synagogue official’s daughter who had died “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up!”  This ministry is dedicated to rescuing trafficked and at-risk girls, and already serves 1,000 such girls, with ambitions to expand its mission to 10,000.  

The main goal of our trip was to travel as ambassadors of the parish, bringing gifts as we went, but also to bring back a perspective and some ideas for how Our Lady of the Rosary may be able to establish long-range and impactful outreach activities that may make a difference for some of these beautiful children of God. A somewhat unexpected observation was about Fr. Raju, who previously we knew as a kind, friendly and dedicated priest with a love of the Lord. What we learned, was that while his body and smile are here serving our parish here in Land O’ Lakes, his heart cries out to India to those struggling in poverty and hopelessness there and especially with the children, youth and low caste villagers.

As a next step, Fathers Justin and Raju plan to invite those interested to meet for an evening with some Indian food and a longer discussion of what we might do as a parish to provide additional support of the mission of the Catholic church in Vijayawada.