ASIA/INDIA - Pallottine missionaries committed to "making every child flourish"

Vutukuru (Agenzia Fides) - "In India we are dedicated to accompanying boys and girls in the process of schooling and to the fight against poverty that affects many families. Our mission is that every child flourishes". This is how the Indian missionary Kishore Raju Beezam, priest of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (also known as the Pallottine Fathers) says in an interview with Fides, speaking of the work that the members of the Congregation founded by Vincent Pallotti carry out according to their particular charism in the Indian subcontinent.
"The educational apostolate in India - explains Fr. Kishore - can reduce the rate of poverty and the construction of schools is a material necessity to develop the Pallottine charism through education".
Since 2013, Father Kishore has been the parish priest of Vutukuru, a small village of about 3,000 inhabitants in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in the south-east of the country.
"The subsistence economy of these people is linked to agriculture - explains Father Kishore -. Many families are reluctant to sending their children to school, so as not to lose the small salary they can earn working in the fields from an early age. To improve the living conditions of the poorest families, the Pallottine Fathers devote themselves to the proclamation and concrete witness to the Gospel, putting themselves at the service of the most deprived: "When I started the mission here in Vutukuru , says the missionary, I stayed in a rented house in the village, living a simple life, alongside the parishioners. Little by little, I started talking to them, listening to their life stories and understanding what these people's needs were. During these years, he continues, thanks also to the donations received, I was able to buy land and build a parish. The faithful have been and are the cornerstone of this small community: they bring all the help they can and, above all, their closeness in prayer is extraordinary. It is also thanks to their support that all the projects and works carried out have been able to see the light of day, in particular the new St. Vincent Pallotti school. I am happy to say that many in the Church of Vutukuru have shared with me the commitment to build 14 stations of the Via Crucis and the Grotto of Our Lady of Sorrows. In this way - he concludes - at the pastoral, spiritual, educational and social level, St Vincent Pallotti is well rooted in the parish of this mission". (ES-PA) (Agenzia Fides, 26/2/2022)

Share:

missionaries

---

---

children

---

---

education

---

---

poverty

---

---