Some years ago, while taking classes for us in Shillong, Fr Paul Puthenangady SDB told us that a parish should not be merely defined and demarcated by the number of Catholic families in it but by the number of poor people in it. Often, when we engage in the administration and pastoral care in a parish, we limit it to the number of Catholic families in the parish. In several places, especially in North India, we have large geographical areas under a parish but with very few Catholic families in it. But, if we think in a little more broadminded manner, we will realize how much more meaningful and fruitful our service will be. It will be an authentic following of the example left behind by Jesus during his public ministry, when he reached out mostly to the poor and most marginalized people of his times, irrespective of their religion or ethnicity.
This new way of understanding a parish dawned on me as a big bolt from the blue, when I was assigned to a new mission some months ago to Don Bosco HRD Mission at Dhobasole, in one of the remotest areas in West Bengal. It is a mission among the Santhals in West Midnapore, bordering Bankura district, in the Jungle Mahal area, the original homeland of the Santhals. It is a mission pioneered by Fr Scaria Nedumattathil, who was also a pioneer in Prison Ministry, India. In the Dhobasole mission, there are no Catholics, but the mission is lively and vibrant like any other parish.
Fr Mathew George SDB
To read the entire article, click Subscribe
