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- Bu sahifa navigatsiya:
- List O F P A P A L HONOÜRS. Catholic Knights.
- S T A T I S T I C A L FAC TS .
- Protestant Mission Workers in India and Ceylon (1924).
- T H E P R E F E C T U R E A P O S T O L I C O F ASSAM.
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ORIENTAL CHURCHES. Ecclesiastioal Province of Ernakulam, M e t r o p o l i t a n a n d
P r i m a t e . Most R ev. A, Kan dathil, A r ch b is h o p o f Ernak ulam . Suffragan. Ch an gan acherry ...
R i g h t Rev . A. Chulaparambil, B ish op oF K ottayam . „ ,,
F. Va zh ap il ly, Bish op o f T r ich u r. t h E APOStOLiC d e l e g a t i o n . Mgr. Edward Mooney. Residence.— The Apostolic Delegation, Bangalore. F o k m e r A p o s t o l i c D e l e g a t e s . Most Rev. Ant. Agliardi, Archbishop of Caesarea, 1884— 1887. Most Rev. Andr. Aiuti, Archbishop of Acrida, 1887— 1891. Most Rev. Lad. Zaleski, Archbishop of Thebes, 1892-1916. Most Rev. Pet. Fumasoni-Biondi, Archbishop of Dioclea, 1916— 1919. Most Rev. Peter Pisani, Archbishop of Constance, 1919—1924. Most Rev. Alexis M. Lepicier, o .
. m ., Archbishop of Tarsus, Visitor Apostolic, 1924— 1926. List O F P A P A L HONOÜRS. Catholic Knights. 1.
O r d e r o f S t . G r e g o r y t h e G r e a t ( f o u n d e d b y P o p e G r e g o r y X V I in
1831). F o r rewarding Soldiers and Civilians. de Som paeo , Th om as , C om m an der o f the O rd er of St. G r e g o r y the Great ( k . c . s . g ), Chief Ju stic e o f Ceylon. C h e v a l ie r s ( C i v i l C la s s ). Mr. P. A . D’ Cruz ( k
s . G . ) , Ed ito r,
San Th ome, Madras. Dr. D. |A. D 'M onte (1925), J u st ic e o f the Peace, Hon. P r e s id e n c y Mag istrate, B om bay. Mr. G eo rg e Fau lk n er (1925), B a r.-a t-L aw , Calcutta. Sir Charles E. F ox (1911 ), Burma. Mr. A. Jeganatha Pillai (1920 ), P oli ce In specto r, retired, M an ag e r and Secreta ry o f I. C, T . S., M orn in g Star O.C., T r ic h in o p o ly . Mr. Edwin John, Ag ra . M r . Oswald Martin (19 25 ), A r c h it e c t . Calcutta. Mr. Constautine Panioty (19 25 ), J u dg e , Small Cause Court, retired, Calcutta. Mr. E. R aym ond, Ju dicia l Com mis sion er o f Sind,
K arachi. Mr. R. W. R o dg er s, Mandalay. M r. E. T he odo re , Madras. C h e v a l i e r (M ilit a r y Claps). Clement Filóse (1893), Gwalior. 2. O r d e r o f S t . S y l v e s t e r ( r e c o n s t i t u t e d b y P o p e G r e g o r y X V I ) .
( 1 ) Charles E. Brow ne (1911), Burma. ( 2 ) John W. D arwood (19 11 ), Burma. ( 3 )
E dw ard M. de Souza ( J912), Burma. ( 4 ) D r. Em. M. de Souza (1911), Buuna. (5 ) Sir G eorg e A . John. A g ra . (fi) V i c t o r J. Mariano (1912), Bu rm a. 3. C r o s s
P r o
E c c l e s ia
e t
P o n t í f i c e . Benja m in P. L e n ta ig n e (19 13 ), Burma. Note. — The Editor will be thankful for corrections or additions to this list.
S T A T I S T I C A L FAC TS . B y F a t h e r J. G. H o u p e r t , s , j . Too .many trees hide the forest. A f t e r r eadin g th rou gh dire cto ries and reports cra m fu l o f details, one likes to obtain a general view. This is b ein g attempted in the f o llo w in g notes : — 1.
1921 —
India. Ceylon.
Total. Cath olics ... 2,606,000 364,000 2,970,090 Other Christians... 2,506,000 79,6U0 2,585,000 This makes a g ra n d total o f ov er five and a half million Christians in ou r M ission s of- In d ia and Ceylon. C a th olic-, the on ly true Christians, have an ab solute m a jor ity io In dia ; and are fiVfe times mdre num erous in Ceylon than all the *’ den o m in atio n s ” together . • 2.
ten e c cle sia stica l p r o v i n c e s made up o f ten arch dio ce s e s, twenty-nine diocese s, three V ica ria te s and two P r efectures A p o s t o l ic : in all (w ith o u t M a la c c a ) forty-three territorial units o f ju r is d i c t io n in In dia and Ceylon. 3.
The Catholic Clergy in the Same Missions amounts to 3.200 priests, o f whom to thousand are In dia ns or Cey lonese; and of those ag ain six hundred belong to the Syria c rite. By another c ross d iv is io n we obtain one thousand regulars and 2.200 se cula r priests, if we in clu d e in the latter the F oreig n Mission o f Paris, MilI*Hill and Milan, who total 330. Arnoug the regula r c le rg y , the S o c ie t y o f Jesus at present has five hundred priests in In dia or Ceylon ; next c om e the Ca pu chin F r a n c is c a n Fathers, 160 in num ber, the Oblate Fathers of Cey lon who num ber 154 and the Syrian Carmelite Fathers w ho total 120 priests. The other Soc ieties o f reg ula rs have a m em bersh ip below seventy at present. 4.
Th ere are 16 M is sio nary Societies of Pr iest s, 12 of Br others, and ov e r 60 [o f nuns. With ail ou r ela borate
H i e r a r c h y o r I n d i a . 13 statis tic s we find here a big gap : the number of our Mission W orkers. That of priests know n and that o f nuns now exceeds 5,000 ; but we have on ly a n cie nt data, those of 1912, for our br oth ers who then were 735 iu num ber, nuns 3,615, cateeb ists 2,727 and teachers 5,616. With the 2,891 priests o f that time this makes a grand total o f 15,584 Mission W or k e rs . Have we now reached 20,000 ? 5. Catholic Training Institutions, We have at present 18 th eoldgical sem inaries or schola stieate s and 21 pr e p a r a to ry Seminaries or A p o s to l ic Schools. As to other in stitutions we ma y better see where we stand if we c o m p a r e our num bers with those o f Non-Cath olic Missious ( D irectory o f Christian
T ea c h e rs’ Nor mal S c h o o ls 25 94
. 28 50 S e co n dary Schools 164 664
V o c a t io n a l Schoo ls 67
170 The Catholic numbers are p r o b a b ly not quite c om ple te ; a g o od many “ Convent Schools” ^are not classified at all. In
other lines
Non -C ath olic Missions dis play remarkab le acti vit y. They maintain 18? dispensaries, 221 hospitals, 68 homes for lepers, 8 for cdusnm pti ves and 11 for the blind.
* 6 .
Catholic Residences» Th'e num ber of locali ties iu In dia and Ceylon iu w h i c h 'C a t h o l i e Priests reside is nearly 1,500. The number o f lo cali tie s in British In dia and its States alone is 688,000, so that uot yet one iu 432 localities has a resid in g priest. Surely we are still at the beg iu n in g o f things. 7.
The latest su rvey (Septe m ber 1925) shows that we have 112 p erio dic als, am o n g them one daily ( 0 Heraldo) three bi-weeklies (th e Ceylon Catholic Messenger, the N a zra ra ni Deepika and the Na na ra tb a Pr adi- paya) 21 weeklies and 46 monthlies. As to la nguage, 72 appear in English and 39 iu the vern aculars. Here again a side-look on Non-Cath olic Missions may be interesting. They publish, in lu d ia and Ceylon , 140 pe rio dic als, the m a jo rit y , namely 84, in the V e r n a c u la rs . F o r our 50 monthlies or bi-mon th lies they issue 95. 14 SÎTATISÎIOAL EXACTS. N o n
-C a t h o l i c M i s s i o n s . 8-
The two and a half millions o f N on -C a tboiic Chris- ti*ns alrea dy m e o t io n e d (in No, 1, a b o v e ) form three g rou p s : — Syrians. Protestants, Unclassified 369,000
2,140,000 76,000
The Syrians are either R e fo r m e d , i « , , Pr ote st antised ( 112,00 0), or Ja co b ites who num ber 253,000, or seven in ten. Of the two million and more P rote stan ts o ne-th ird are unbaptised adherents, and 773,000, and one-th ird— are ‘ ‘ c o m m u nic an ts, or church members in full s t a n d in g . ” This shows in what preca rious state P rotestan t Christianity still finds itself.
In the Catholic total we have on ly 63,000 c a te c h u mens ( n o t even 2 per o en t) and all Cath olics o f teu years and ab ove , that is, 87 per cent may safely be put down as “ c o m m u n ica n t s ” in the real senso of the word. 9. The number o f Protestan t M issionary Societies at pr esent in India and Ceylon is 166, sever al be lo ng to the same d en om in atio n and several den om in ation s c o-opera te in what they call Union Institutions, such h s
the Madras Christian College, the W o m e n 's Christian College, the Seram pore College and several T r a in in g Sch ools fo r pastor s. T r a in in g In st itution s for pastors and evangeli sts are 61 in number, and those for other “ w o r k e r s ,” 65. A c o m p a r is o n o f such in stitutions with our semiuar ies would be in c o n g r u o u s ; but it ex pla ins well what fo llows. 10.
The stron g poin t o f the Indian Protestan t Missions is their immense army of “ M is s io n - W o r k e r s , ” who actu ally n um ber fifty-seven thou sand. They are distr ib ute d into fo u r classes, as shown in the table below. 22 thousand are en ga ged in pastoral and e v an ge li stic work, 30 thousand on the field o f e du ca tio n , 2 thousand in the m ed ical line as d o c to r s or nurses, and 3,500 remain unclassfied. E du cational w ork alone employs more than half (53 per c e n t .) o f all mission agbnts ; but, as they c are full y note, there is no twrd and fast line between edu ca tio u and e vangeli sation ; many do dir ect w ork of both kin ds. There
is one “ w o rk e r ,” mission pa id , for every fourt ee n communi- cants !
S t a t i s t i c a l F a c t s ; 15 This b i r d ’ s eye view sufficiently reveals some stron g and weak poiiits in both Cath olic and N on -C a th olic Missions. It
does not minim ize the solid g ood tbut we are doing. It sbows m o reo v er on the Catholic side brig ht prom is es for the future. Protestant Mission Workers in India and Ceylon (1924). «• * 1 "* ~ -
to 0 g
M * * > CL, E l
* s 0 53 » a n m Medical.
£ 2
m « y P Total.
E u r o p ean Men ...
1,110 454
100 170
1,834 E u ro pean W o m en 1,001 808
366 886
3,061 In d ig e n o u s Men ... 14,058 20,019 596
1,584 36,257 In d ig e n o u s W om en 5,501 8,686
911 939 16,037 Total 21,670 29,967 1,973 3,572 57,189 T H E P R E F E C T U R E A P O S T O L I C O F ASSAM. B y Bt. Bev. Mgr. Mathias, S. C. As sa m did not re ceiv e any oE the bless ings o f C h ris tia n it y until much later than the other parts o f India. Whilst the South o f India*can boast o f h av in g benefited by the zeal o f St. Thomas the Apos tl e, who w h s mart yred there by fanatical pa ga n priests, and whilst it claim s as a sp ecial pa tron the g r e a t Jesuit M issionar y, St. Fran cis X a v ie r , the North, and p a rticu la rly the regio n o f which we intend to speak, has seen the Catholic M is sio nary fix his tent permanen tly in its wide plains and am o n g st its lo ft y mountains on ly d u r i n g the last fifty years. U n fortun ate ly , P rote stan tism had been p r o p ag ated in these r e gio n s half a ce n tu ry bef or e and the in sidiou s tree will on ly be u prooted with great difficulty. In reality there had been ea rlier attem pts on the part o f ardent and zealous priests w ho la boured u ntirin g ly to b r in g the Faith to the people of these m o u n tains , but it is difficult to say with pre cisio n when these first attem pts w e ie made. W hen the g rea t C ath olic m ov em en t was d e v e lo p in g in L o w e r Ben g al pr io r to 1678 it seems that its effects were felt even in As sa m. In the
w o rk o f a certain writer named McCash written in 1837 it is stated that in A s s a m “ there are about sixty Portu guese, descen dan ts o f P o rtu gu ese sol dier s who were at one time in the serv ic e o f the Nawab o f D acca . They are Rom an Catholics and every family possesses some rudely-made imag e or other, g enerall y of the Blessed V i r g in , c ar ved in wood and st uck in the g ro u nd after the H in d o o custom. They do not pay any m ore attention to Sunday than the other natives do, their food and dress are the same, and they sometimes in termarry with the Mussulman families. Some are em p lo ye d as courie rs, others as s h e p h e r d s . " One o f those native Christian v illa ges was d is c o v e r e d at B o n da s Hill, a p la ce near B a d ap u r a lo n g the R iv e r B a ra c in the V alley o f Sylket. It is the one re m ain in g vesti ge o f appiept Christianity in Assa m, i t is said that they were
A s s a m . 17 g iv en that locali ty to dwell in ab out tbe be g in n in g o f tbe eighteenth c e n t u r y by a Mussulman Nawab w bo came fr om Meerut a c c o m p a in e d by Mussu lm ans and native Christians. W h ere tbe Na wab had en rolled these so ldie rs, his tory does not say, but they settled down at Bonda s Hill and c o n s tr u c te d a f o r t there. A f t e r the war o f Birm ania (1820-28) tbe Na wab, as a reward fo r his lo yalt y, r e ce iv ed a g ra nt o f land at B a n ia g a n y , and the retu rn s from this permit ted the Catholics o f Bon das Hill to live a n idleness. Dispu tes b r o k e out a m on g st the m em bers o f the little c o m m u n ity , their fields were g ra dua lly sold to inhabita nts o f n e ig h b o u r in g villa ges, and the m a jo rit y o f them ( w r o t e Allen in 1905) earn their li v in g by hard daily toil. A c c o r d i n g to an a c c o u n t written in the same year by Fr. M arcell in o, a M is sio nary o f the C o n g re g ation o f the D ivin e S a v iou r at Badap ur, the N a w a b march ed into Assa m at the head o f six hundred Mussulman soldiers and fo u r or five hundr ed Ca tholics. This Father affirms that he c o u ld find no d o c u m en t to pr o v e that these Christians, bad been v is it ed bef or e 1850. W e k n o w h owev er that the rem nants o f these Christian families at B o n d a s Hill were visited in 1844 by a Fr. T r y c en o n who penetr at ed to the nort h-west o f Assam a m o n g st the native tribes in the valle y o f tbe B ram aputr a aud f o u n d the N agas v ery f a v o u r a b ly in clin ed to Catholicism. This we learn fro m a letter o f his written on the 4th Sept. at tbe f o o t o f the Nagas Hills. From 1870 Fr. F o u rm od o f the dio ce se o f D a c ca was able to remain at Bon da s Hill fo r three years and eventua lly other priests from tbe same d ioc ese c am e to reside here f o r short perio ds o f time. Furt her on, when I have treated o f the in tr o d u ction o f Ca tholicism a m ong st the inhabita nts o f the valley o f the Bram aputr a, I shall be able to say so m e th in g o f the fo undation o f a r esid en ce with pe rm a ne n t M is sio n arie s in this region. F ortu nate ly there is still l i v i n g at S h il lo ng an ex cellent Catholic fam ily of the name o f D ela n ou gerede who came to A ssa m in 1848 and then settled at Gauhati, and who r e m em b er the first Missionar ies that came to tbe valley o f the B ram apu tra. In F ebru ary, 1850, Assa m had been jo ined to tbe V i c a r ia t e o f Tibet ; the first M issionaries, Frs. R ob in , K r i c k and Bernard tried to go by way o f Bhutan. They
w ent alo ng the Bram apu tr a and g o t as far as Dew&ngiri, but 3 IS A s s a m . difficulties o f every kind preven ted their further progress « n d Fr. Bernard, himself worn out and emaciated , had to .support his half-dead su p e r io r ba ck to Gauhati. In the mea ntim e Fr. K r i c k had g o n e to D ib r u ga rh to try to obtain a passage th rough the Misbmis to T ib et but the c h ie f would not grant biin p e rm is sio n to g o through. A lieu
tenant made a sketch o f the c o n f a b and sent it to F r a n ce ; in this p ic tu re the c h ie f o f the Misbmis is seen tranquil ly and in differ en tly sm o k in g his pipe whilst the M iss io n a r y is e n ergetic ally try in g to c o n v i n c e him, and to o v e r c o m e his o bs tin a cy . In a very in terestin g letter written from S a ik w o c k on D ece m be r 1st 1851, Fr. K r ic k tells o f his jo u r n e y fr om Gauhati to Tezpar. Th ere be found Catholics w ho were mos t desirou s o f se eing a priest. They had lost much o f their r e lig io n th rou gh liv in g am ong st Pr otest ants . A Catholic Eu ropean d o c t o r was liv in g a m ongst them and the M issionary was able to baptise this g e ntle m a n ’ s wife who had been a Protest ant. Th e priest stopped there f o r a month and a half in st ru ct in g and c a te c h isin g the people and then he again so u ght Bram apu tra and follow ed it northw ards. A t a certain po in t the bo a tm en deserted him bu t he was hospit ab ly re ce iv e d by the sa cerdotal tribe named H ad ia Doeris. These
p r o v id e d him with two fresh boa tm en ; one was a d w a r f and the other was blind o f an eye, but with their help and the g u id a n c e o f P r o v id e n c e he a rriv ed at S a ik w o ck and becam e the guest o f a cert ain Ca pta in Smith. “ On the 19th o f N o v e m b e r,” so he wrote, “ a Captain W a th who had c o m e to S a ik w o ck to ar r an ge with his c o l league for an exped ition to Dih on g to p r o te c t the gold dig g e rs there pro po sed that I should a c c o m p a n y him, and he promised to put me in touch with the sa va ge trib e called A b o r s . W e
set out with an escort o f 200 soldier s with nine tr an sp ort elephants, and after five or six days we fell in with 700 A b o rs , all armed with the bow and ar row and a spear o f e n orm ous length.
A f t e r treatin g with them in a most frie nd ly ma nner r e g a rd in g their affairs Capt. W ath besought them to re ce iv e me and to c o n d u c t me to Tibet. ‘ We would not dare,’ , they said, * we are afr aid som eth in g might hap pen to ou r g u e s t.’ D u r in g the in te rview the sa va ge dress o f our native frie nd s and at $he same time their en tirely E u r o p e a n c a st o f
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