Priest from India promotes preaching God’s word in all seasons

We are all successors to those first Twelve and we are the Church. So we, too, must proclaim the Kingdom of God to the people of our own time, whether they like it or not, knowing that a great reward lies in store for those who do listen and believe.”

Father Mukti Prakash Minj

Priests, sisters and laypeople in the Tribal regions of India face numerous obstacles to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Yet, they continue doing it every day.

“There have been many instances when priests and nuns and even ordinary Christians have been harassed and some even put into prison on false accusations,” Father Mukti Prakash Minj told the people of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City the weekend of July 13-14.

Nonetheless, “the message of God cannot be silenced and hidden simply because people may or may not like it,” he said.

Fr. Minj, a priest of the Diocese of Jashpur in northern India, is visiting parishes in Jefferson City as part of the national Mission Co-op program.

The growing Church in his diocese receives support from the diocesan Missions Office, which has helped pay for new churches and schools and for transportation for priests and helped people escape multigenerational cycles of poverty.

The Missions Office supports mission and humanitarian partnerships with other dioceses in countries with developing economies.

Its main source of revenue for these partnerships is the annual Missions Special Collection, which will be taken up in parishes throughout this diocese July 20-21.

Special envelopes were inserted into the July 5 edition of The Catholic Missourian.

Donations can also be made securely online by visiting: diojeffcity.org/donate-missions.

Fr. Minj said that despite the persecutions, the mission of Christ continues in the Diocese of Jashpur, “and now we have a vibrant local Church with about 200,000 Catholics.”

Catholics now make up about 15 percent of the population in Fr. Minj’s home region, in comparison to about 2.3 percent nationwide.

And they are hypercharged with the Gospel.

“One clear proof of the vibrancy of our local Church is the number of vocations we have,” said Fr. Minj.

Sons and daughters of the Jashpur diocese are serving as priests and nuns all over India and all over the world.

Two priests of Jashpur — Father Alex Ekka and Father Walter Kispotta — are currently missionary priests in the Jefferson City diocese.

Two other priests of the Jashpur diocese were previously on mission here.

Bishop Emeritus John R. Gaydos and a group of priests and laypeople from the Jefferson City diocese visited the Jasphpur diocese in 2013.

Bishop W. Shawn Mc­Knight and a mission team visited there in 2019.

The Jashpur diocese operates three high school seminaries with a combined total enrollment of 230 seminarians.

It also runs a college seminary, with 44 currently enrolled.

After completion of the high school seminary, students are free to continue their formation and discernment with any diocese or religious order.

“I’m happy to tell you that an average of about 10 to 15 young sons of our diocese are ordained to Priesthood each year,” said Fr. Minj, “some to serve in the home diocese and others to serve in other parts of India and even abroad.”

Twelve men from the Jashpur diocese were ordained this year.

From death to new life

The Jashpur diocese is a rural area made up mostly of indigenous Oraon people — commonly known as Tribals.

Chronic manifestations of poverty are overshadowed by the people’s joy-filled fidelity to the Gospel that was preached to their ancestors no more than three or four generations ago.

The Oraon people had been outcasts for centuries when Jesuit missionaries from Belgium arrived to offer the first Mass in the district in 1906.

The people had been subject to forced, unpaid labor, which left them poor, uneducated, full of misery and devoid of hope.

The missionaries helped them realize that were not inferior. In fact, they were created in the image and likeness of God, who loved them enough to send his only Son to suffer, die and rise for them so they could spend all eternity with him.

With that revelation came a call for the Tribal people to worship God and repent of sinful ways while embracing the dignity and justice that are rightfully theirs.

Just as those missionaries gained people’s trust and confidence by educating children, caring for the sick and advocating for human rights, present-day Catholics in and around the Jashpur diocese continue to preach the word with action.

The Church has opened numerous Catholic schools, hostels and health clinics, helping thousands of people not only to live healthier lives and escape the poverty of subsistence farming but also to know Jesus and share Him with others.

The Indian government has enacted rigid anti-conversion laws in recent years, but the Church continues to grow and thrive by revealing the presence of Christ in word and action.

All the while, tribal customs dating back to the time of Christ, baptized through revelation and His Good News, continue to be cherished and celebrated.

“The Word of God is like a double-edged sword, piercing both heart and mind,” said Fr. Minj.

“We are all successors to those first Twelve and we are the Church,” he said. “So we, too, must proclaim the Kingdom of God to the people of our own time, whether they like it or not, knowing that a great reward lies in store for those who do listen and believe.”