Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – It is a sort of bell tower, with stairs that allow people to go up and stop at various points along the way to pray in front of statues of saints: this is Vatluru (India). "There is no feast of a patron,” says Father Luigi De Giambattista, Superior of the Divine Providence Delegation, but a celebration deeply felt by the people of the 13 villages that make up the parish community. There are 5,000 people in a spread-out area, all of them Dalits and all very poor and highly marginalized." Preceded by a week of intense prayer and evangelization, a large tent is set up on the church grounds, also home to an orphanage and Caritas soup kitchen, which is attended by over a thousand people, Catholics and non, who come to hear a message of hope, forgiveness, and solidarity. The festival is celebrated on the 80th anniversary of the parish of the Sacred Heart, which owes its presence to the first evangelization carried out 90 years ago by the missionaries of the PIME, who are based in the Docese of Eluru. The Guanellians arrived 85 years later. The PIME Fathers have since continued the work of evangelization, making Vatluru their center for missionary outreach. The Guanellians have been entrusted by the Bishop with a parish that nobody wanted, because of the extreme poverty, tensions, and the large presence of people with AIDS. "We take care of 65 orphaned children, many of whom have been orphaned as a result of the HIV virus. This is why we are developing, along with a group of people from the Diocese of Eluru, a project more focused for families affected by the illness. These are people who contract the virus from abuse or from prostituting themselves out of extreme poverty," says Fr. Luigi.
The Guanellians are also working hard on dialogue and reconciliation, the Superior says. “On 14 November we opened (in Vatluru) a formation house as part of the parish. An oratory is being formed near the seminary, which is promoted by the young seminarians and two Guanellian priests who offer spiritual guidance in this sense. This program offers support for basic education, offering after-school care, animation, sports, and spiritual activities, for Catholics and non." (AP) (Agenzia Fides 25/2/2010)
