We Jesuits Would Save Them, Not Only From Sin And The Devil, But From Hunger And Nakedness, Too.

Where the American Jesuits
Will Work in India.

Announcement has already been made of the departure of the American Jesuits for their mission in India. They sailed January 15th, from New York.

Some information of interest regarding this event is furnished by Rev. L. J. Kenny, S.J., of the St. Louis University.

Some 20,000,000 pagans live in one of the most wonderful parts of all the world —the Land of the Lotus-Eaters—between the banks of the Sacred Ganges and towering peaks of the Himalayas, unattended now by missionaries of any land. 

Austrian Capuchins were here before the war, but were expelled; and the 7,000 Christians they had gathered about them, are now relying for the upkeep of their faith on the teachings of the Irish Christian Brothers at one end of the mission and of a colony of Swiss Sisters who conduct an orphanage at the other end.

"The Holy Father saw this spiritual destitution and sent orders to the Jesuit Fathers of the St. Louis University to hasten to the rescue.

"The first delegation from Missouri is made up of Frs. William J. Fline of Milwaukee, Thomas A. Kelly of Chicago, Edward P. Anderson of Cincinnati, Patrick J. Troy of Grand Rapids, and Henry J. Milct of Detroit They will proceed to Patna, which is the center of the mission. It is not thought that others will follow until they have made their reports to St. Louis as to needs and possibilities. Patna is the ancient capital of India, and is the very heart of what used to be the nefarious opium trade, for this is the land of the lotus and the poppy.

In Behalf of An Indian Mission.

This appeal was forwarded by the Rev. A. Bruder, S.J., of the Poona Diocese, India, another region where famine is now stalking.

Owing to the failure of both crops, famine conditions are once more prevailing in the Aluneduagar district. Our missions are again in urgent need of help. The Catholic public, we are aware, has appeal after appeal made to it (and God bless it for its continued generosity), but we cannot help making another. The rains failed and our people are starving and half-naked. We must help them.

Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked forms a conspicuous part of Our Lord's teaching. For the people among whom we work it is a sufficient credential of our divine mission. A large part of our flock consists of children whose pagan parents brought them to us to instruct and baptize because they knew that in times of need we would save them, not only from sin and the devil, but from hunger and nakedness, too.

"We have hardly the heart to visit our villages during these hard times. Our flocks are getting scattered, wandering about looking for work. Our children who ought to be in school are gathering 'prickly pears'—wretched, unnourishing food, but the only food they can find. Their rags are getting scantier day by day. Who will send us a gift?

The life of a Jesuit in 1921, link (here) to Catholic Missions 

Engravings of Hindu women committing suicide according to Hindu tradition of wives joining their husbands into the after life (here) called a Suttee or Sati