This morning, we were privileged to welcome to CNEWA’s New York offices Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, who heads the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of Faridabad in India.
It’s not a small job.
His eparchy stretches across six states in the “great north” of India, bordering Nepal — ”at 19,000 feet, it’s the highest diocese in the world,” Msgr. John E. Kozar, CNEWA’s president, explained by way of introduction. The territory embraces about one million square kilometers (just under 400,000 square miles) and counts a population of 120 million people — nearly all of them non-Christian.
But into this vast territory, he is bringing the Gospel — and with the help of CNEWA and our generous donors, helping the message of Jesus to be heard.
As he told the CNEWA staff during a meeting this morning, his main focus at the moment is Punjab, a region on the northern border of India with a culture and a government that are tolerant. Unlike many other parts of India, Punjab does not have an “anti-conversion bill” on the books — that is, a law whereby anyone who is converted without the knowledge and approval of civil authorities can be arrested. Punjab permits Christianity to be taught and practiced, and Archbishop Kuriakose is helping lead the way.
With CNEWA’s support, he has just established the 19th mission in the area. He described how these missions work.
“We rent out a building,” he explained, adding that conditions are, by Western standards, primitive. “In many houses, priests do not even have running water. They have to take a bucket, collect water, come to the mission house where they live. Often, in the work, they are helped by catechists. Priests do not always master the language, so we have one or two paid full-time catechists. Then I have a seminary student who is an intern. All these go to the villages and they make a presence. They have singing, they spend time with them, praying with them.”
There is also great effort to attract vocations.
“To go to such a primitive, remote area, to work in such conditions, you need dedicated priests,” he told us. “This is my blessing. I have young people who are eager. We are promoting a kind of priestly adventure. ‘Come here,’ we say. ‘Live here three years.’ And they are coming.”
“What he is doing is wonderful,” Msgr. Kozar said of the archbishop’s work. “He’s using the resources of the south, by inviting them on this ‘priestly adventure,’ to come and learn about a whole new dimension of the church in India, a church that is hungry for people to know Jesus, and to form the local church up in the ‘great north.’
“This is really the model for what evangelization is supposed to be.”
