Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tura (Fides Service) – Padre Pio School in the diocese of Tura in north west India is already fully functioning with intense activity. The local Catholics are deeply devoted to the Franciscan friar, canonised a Saint on 16 June 2002.
The foundation stone for the school was laid on the day of the Saint’s canonisation and finished in record time: a year later some 100 pupils benefit from this service. Next to the school work on a church and a small hospital goes ahead, and the buildings should be inaugurated in March 2004.
“These works testify the missionary spirit of Padre Pio” Bishop George Mamalassery of Tura told Fides Service. “We thank all those Italian Catholics who contributed to this initiative, the benefactors who helped with letters and donations, and Padre Pio prayer groups who have been close to us. We want the spirit of the holy Friar to live on here and the small hospital will be first of all a testimony of love and solidarity for orphans, single mothers, other needy cases. Padre Pio is a model of goodness, love and Franciscan brotherhood and carried around the world through his missionaries with his great interior riches he evangelises the poor ”. His message reached this area and took root thanks to Capuchin missionaries who bear witness to the life and the spirit of the saint. Bishop Mamalassery announced the completion of the school and progress in the building of the church and the hospital during the ad limina visit which the Indian Bishops are presently making to Rome.
The initiative is part of a Padre Pio da Pietralcina missionary in the world project which aims to spread the spirituality and the work of the friar on all five continents. Various projects are underway in several countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America in support of abandoned children and unmarried mothers. This is why the complex always consists of a church, a school and a hospital. PA (Fides Service 20/5/2003 EM lines 24 Words: 293)
