Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – "Francis Xavier is a model for evangelization in India today. The faithful love him and venerate him as a patron. His commitment and his missionary zeal are an example to us, also in the mission ad gentes, which grows in the Indian Church.” This is what Agenzia Fides was told on the Feast day of St. Francis Xavier, Patron Saint of the Missions, in an interview with Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi.
The Cardinal recalled the difficulties and prospects of the mission in India: "There are difficulties, but also hope and encouraging signs. India is like a small world [in itself], full of so many languages, cultures, philosophies, religion...and can provide a model for how to evangelize in a context where pluralism reigns. Evangelizing today is a very big challenge, as it was for the Apostles Thomas and Bartholomew, who first brought us the message of Christ, and as it was for Francis Xavier and the first Jesuits. Today Christians in India are 2.3% of the population, a small minority. But, despite the difficulties, the Church is growing. We are being launched into the new Areopagi that modern culture presents to us."
A "turning point" was the recent Indian Missionary Congress, held in October 2009: "The Congress' theme was: 'Let your light shine'. We have awakened the consciousness of the faithful to be the light of the world. The mission in the past has given great results, as we mentioned at the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Jesuits in the region of Bengal (East India): I am a 'son' of that missionary work. We believe that it will continue bearing fruits in the future.”
The problem of fundamentalism that attacks Christians, the Cardinal says, "is not intimidating to us, because we know that our God is bigger than the extremists. They have an ideology contrary to the very nature of India and want to betray pluralism, preaching one single culture and religion. The issue of 'forced conversions' is without foundation. As I come from a tribal community, I am a living witness of this. We defend ourselves by calling to mind the Indian Constitution, in the certainty that our defense is Christ himself."
Even the proposal to establish a National Day of the Martyrs of India, at the ecumenical level, Cardinal Toppo says, "may be a good initiative if it does not take on a provocative nature: it is a testimony of dialogue, listening, non-violence. In Orissa and other states, concrete initiatives for dialogue and encounter are needed between different communities, to prevent other incidents like the massacres of 2008."
In concluding, the Cardinal commented that: "The heart of the mission is the family, the center for the transmission of and reflection on the faith. The 'domestic church' is the focal point of evangelization in India as in other parts of the world, in the East and West that is becoming 'de-Christianized.'” (PA) (Agenzia Fides 3/12/2009)
