Posted on 04/11/2006 9:57:54 PM PDT by NYer
KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, APRIL 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Vocations in India seem to be booming as increasing numbers of young men stepping forward to prepare for the priesthood.
In a recent interview with the international charity Aid to the Church in Need, Father Ignatius Prasad, rector of the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Chennai (formerly Madras), gave this optimistic assessment of the Church.
The priest explained that his seminary now has 286 students and that -- due to a lack of space -- he had to turn away 23 candidates, who have been forced to continue their training elsewhere.
The seminary is one of four in southern India with a combined total of almost 800 students from 28 dioceses. More than 60 of them are due to be ordained to the priesthood next month.
In Chennai, there were now more than 30 students in each year-group in the seminary's theology section, double the number in the late 1980s, Father Prasad said.
"Vocations are going up; this has been the case for the last five years or so," the rector said. "We find it difficult to admit all the applicants and set a tight deadline for them to get their papers in on time."
Father Prasad revealed that there was growing "political pressure" to limit the growth of the Church with a new anti-conversion law introduced in the state of Tamil Nadu: Preaching in public is forbidden and would-be converts to Christianity now face a barrage of paperwork thrust upon them by government officials.
Retreats, sodalities
The seminary rector said that people were turning to the Church in protest against the new regulations.
"The more pressure they put on people, the more they feel like proclaiming their faith," he said.
The priest went on to explain that lively youth programs were drawing people to the faith and encouraging men to discern a possible vocation to the priesthood. Retreats, sodalities and altar serving had all helped to boost the number of seminarians.
He also praised the work of Aid to the Church in Need, describing how the charity had supported key training for seminary staff, Mass intentions, library books and a generator.
"What we feel is so important," Father Prasad added, "is to help the students to realize what they are learning about is not so much an academic subject but a mystery, something that is very personal and with a strong human dimension to it."
Right, and India is a stable country too.
it isnt a murdering dictatorship for sure.
Chicken? That title belongs to the Indians. French or Indians, i can't figure it out which is more chicken.
"it isnt a murdering dictatorship for sure."
India is a dictatorship for the 60% Dalits that still lives in the squalors and still goes to bed hungry each night. The system is religion based, it's set up for the Brahmins. If you're born a Dalit, the only job in the government that you can apply for is to be a garbage man.
http://www.indianchild.com/abortion_infanticide_foeticide_india.htm
for once i might agree with you. india is a dhimmi country that has a bad track record of attacking other countries or throwing back invaders. india is a weak country.
the chinese have a much better record barring the mongol invasions.
anyways, try invading taiwan and see what we do to you. the last time I checked, Al Gore wasnt our president. we will whup your communist backsides. just try it.
FR isnt a communist rag tag for you to keep lying. Dalits in India get a quota in ALL EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS and JOBS. India has the largest affirmative action program in the world. (I disagree with the quota system). It has a Sikh prime minister and a muslim president.
By the way is "trolling" an official job in the peoples dictatorship of china??
Does trolling as an Indian moron gets you an official title in India? Oh i forget, a Brahmin.
Doesn't matter, Dalits still cna't get any job in the government other than garbage man/sanitation work. It's there. Try marrying someone outside of your caste in India and you'll get yourself killed.
Democracy is an idealism that Ghandi hoped India would be able to achieve, but unfortunately if you're a Dalit, you're shunned and controlled by the Hindu religion. That's where all the ANTI CONVERSION laws apply, to control the slave labor in India and has been for thousands of years.
Maybe you are mistaking your puppet state of pakistan for India. I googled and apparently a dalit went on to become the president of india. Another dalit wrote the constitution. Hold your breath one more dalit authored the most sacred books of the hindus. As I said STOP LYING, chicom.
K R Narayanan: Dalit President of India
Ambedkar: Dalit author of the indian constitution
Contrast this to the dictatorship and the murder of the godless Chicoms.
As recently as two decades or so ago, tiny, piss-poor Vietnam gave China a sound thrashing. Of course the ChiComs will spin it off as a "voluntary withdrawal" of Chinese forces, after their "aims have been achieved".
The riots you mentioned earlier happened to be pre-planned. The thugs hired by the opposition in Karnataka's government started the rioting.
Besides, the riots were never anti-government riots, like how it almost always is, in China. In this particular case, frenzied fans of the person who died began seeking the body as theirs, and not the family's, the family being seen as the enemy of the actor.
Here is an incident of rape in an orphanage in Bombay.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1024272
sorry, just put you in as an FYI!
Urban India represents something like 10-15% of the overall population. What about the rest?
Urban India represents something like 10-15% of the overall population. What about the rest?
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