India: The Vincentian Congregation of Malabar

Evangelization Programme among Non Christians in the Diocese of Bareilly. @ACN
Evangelization Programme among Non Christians in the Diocese of Bareilly. @ACN

The Vincentian congregation of Malabar is a home-grown religious congregation within the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. It was established in 1904 in Kerala. Currently the congregation has 381 priests, two brothers and 209 major seminarians and is active worldwide in the missions, although mostly in India and Africa.

The congregation follows the rule of the Congregation of the Mission (CM), which was founded in 1625 by St Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). Its charism includes evangelisation, the proclamation of the gospel, retreats, spiritual exercises and seminars, and the support of the poor.

In the archdiocese of Bareilly in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the congregation has been present since 1991. The Vincentians have two centres, in areas where the people have for many years not known any Christians. "When we began our mission here, nobody in the surrounding area had ever heard anything about Jesus", explains the director of the mission centre, Father Bobby Emprayil. "But by a miracle and through God's providence, thousands are closely linked to our centre today. They believe in Jesus – mostly the Hindus among them, but also a few Muslims. Most of them have now turned their backs on their old beliefs and accepted Jesus in their hearts. They practise regular prayer times in their houses and also take part in the prayers here at our centre", Father Bobby adds.

With the help of their catechists and other lay co-workers, the Vincentians keep in regular contact with the villagers. In the centre there are not only regular prayer times and Sunday Masses, but also night-time adoration, in which hundreds of non-Christians participate. Sick people come here, to rest in the centre and to pray for healing. The community organises a number of missions each year, during which the participants renew and strengthen their faith through prayer, exchange of ideas and catechesis. Last year the Vincentian Brothers organised 22 missions in 11 different dioceses of northern India. For five years now they have been organising an annual charismatic meeting. For three days several thousand people come together to participate. Most of them are not even Christians. The last great gathering took place in February 2010.

Holding a gathering on such a scale requires good organisation, and above all the necessary funding. But the archdiocese did not have the resources to stage the event, and so Father Bobby turned to ACN for help. Around 750 people, who had come from other dioceses, often many miles away, were in need of accommodation. There was no money for renting tents, or for food and technical equipment. And so ACN stepped in with €7,000.

Father Bobby has now written back to say thank you. "We will certainly remember all your generous benefactors in our prayers. We offer constant intercessions in our centre, and I promise you that we will entrust you and your activities very specially to the Lord."

The meeting was an immense success and around 3,500 people took part.

To know about this and many other similar projects in favour of the pastoral needs of the suffering Church, please contact our national offices.