On the weekend of August 27-28, our parish will participate in our Archdiocesan Mission Sunday. One weekend a year each parish receives a missionary who traditionally comes to the parish talking about their specific missionary work and asking for help. Often times, their worlds are complete with desperate situations, normally life and death, comprised of suffering from disease, wars, famine, draught, or other daily difficulties. Today sadly, many of the missionaries are unable to travel internationally for a host of reasons (health, danger leaving their country, or the lack of funds to fly internationally) which is made even more difficult today due to the increases costs of travel and cancelation of flights every day.

On August 27-28, our parish will hear about the Diocese of Pathanamthitta, in the southernmost part of India, which is one of the newest dioceses in the Catholic Church. However, unfortunately the presenter will be yours truly. I will do my best to present their needs to our community and I will ask you to consider helping them in some way. While I may not be “international” nor will I have first-hand knowledge of Pathanamthitta or the daily sufferings in India, I do consider myself a “missionary priest” of sorts, after all I did come to St. Catherine in 2007 from West Hartford, which is over Avon Mountain!

As a new diocese, the bishop along with the ordained and lay leaders are in the initial stages of developing the Church both spiritually and temporally. The diocese currently has 106 priests assigned to parishes and mission stations, there are 45,000 lay faithful within Pathanamthitta and more than 1,500,000 inhabitants.

Some of the most urgent needs are to promote priestly vocations, attend to the well-being of the marginalized in their society, especially the mentally and physically challenged, which often times is left to the Church rather than the government. In addition, food, medical care, education and all the normal Catholic spiritual and corporal works of mercy are in great need.

As we discuss this mission in more detail at the end of the month, I write today to ask you to pray over how you might be able to help. I thank you for your prayerful consideration.