Every week our office is flooded with requests for
assistance from missionaries all over the world. One of the most affirming experiences we
enjoy is to see a missionary diocese progress from “mission receiving” to “mission
sending;” that is, to be strong enough to send forth missionaries to countries
other than their own.
Recently we received a letter from Father Francis, a
missionary priest of the Vincentian community based in Kerala, India. Father Francis wrote to us asking to be
included in our Missionary Cooperative Program this year in order to raise
financial support for an orphanage that his community has opened in Masaka,
Uganda. He described the mission and
ministry of this outreach program:
It is an interior area and the people are
very poor and illiterate. One of the
biggest evils that the people in this area are fighting with is poverty. Children are the main victims of such
evils. They are denied basic human
rights for their primary as well as higher education.
This house is expected to give free
accommodation and food to orphans as well as poor children in and around the
locality. At present thirty-five
children are admitted here. Providing
education to children will lead the families out of the vicious circle of illiteracy
and poverty. This will lead them to a
bright future with a decent and dignified living. The demand is increasing day by day to
accommodate more children. We hope to
get support from generous people like you to continue this humanitarian work
without any difficulty or hindrance.
Your generous support of the Pontifical Society for the
Propagation of the Faith enables “mission receiving” countries to become
“mission sending.” Time and time again
we are reminded that the Church is truly “one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic”—universal in the truest sense of the word—and mandated by Christ to
share and spread the faith throughout the world.
-Rev. Rodney J. Copp, JCL
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