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 Sacred
Hearts Missions, an international, apostolic order founded in France
during the French Revolution, and now made up of more than 2,000
priests, brothers and sisters serving in over 37 countries, is
seeking your support. We began ministering in India in 1975, and
over the last several years the Lord has blessed the
Congregation there with vocations to the religious life and
priesthood.
Our members in India are in mission following the
example of our brother, Blessed Damien,
whose selfless devotion to the cause of leprosy patients on the
island of Molokai has been a continual inspiration not only to the
members of the Congregation but to people all over the world.
Our vocation program in India has grown substantially
over the years and we find ourselves ready to bring all of our
candidates under one roof in order that we may build community and
reflect the charism of the order.
We anticipate seven to eight students per class year,
therefore the building
needs to house a minimum of thirty students and four
priests.
India has the fourth largest episcopate in the world,
after Brazil, Italy, and the United States. Christians are barely
2.3% of the total Indian population, and only 1.8% of the population
is Catholic. Yet, Indian Christians provide 20% of the country’s
elementary education and 10% of the literacy and community-based
health-care programs; Christians provide 25% of the care for widows
and orphans and 30% of the care of the handicapped, and those
battling leprosy and AIDS (George Weigel, Ethics and Public Policy
Center, Washington, DC).
 Sacred
Hearts Missions is seeking to raise $850,000 (37,850,499.18 INR) in
order to fund the construction of and establish a maintenance
endowment for Damien Bhavan House of Study.
 The
USA East Coast Province has purchased the necessary acreage for the
house and a social service center, in Bangalore, at a cost of
$335,000. The
parcel is adjacent to the Suvidya College, a
Fransalian Institute of Philosophy and Social Science, affiliated
with the Pontifical University of Urbaniana, Rome.
Over the past two hundred years, Sacred Hearts
Missions has given its best effort in bringing change to the lives
of the world’s neediest without regard to race or religion. There
are many ways in which we want to serve and many more that are in
need of our help, however, we in turn need your support.
Won’t you please prayerfully consider how you may
help us bring the Word of God to those seeking to serve Him.
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