SAR News Aug. 28, 2002 Impact of Catholic Church in India Goes Far Beyond Numbers: Cardinal Dias
Bangalore: SAR News Cardinal Ivan Dias Archbishop of Bombay has said that the Catholic Church's influence in India is far greater than its share of the population. Although missionary work has been going on for over two thousand years in India - St. Thomas the Apostle is considered its first evangelizer - Christians number only 23 million among a population of more than 1 billion, while Catholics total 18 million, the Cardinal said. According to a Zenit report from Italy, August 20, the Cardinal made these comments in the coastal city of Rimini where he is attending the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples. Cardinal Dias claimed that the Catholic Church in India offered 20 percent of school education, 10 percent of all literacy and health-related programmes, 25 percent of all projects for widows and orphans, 30 percent of all available structures for leprosy and AIDS patients. "In my diocese alone, Bombay, we have 150 schools and university colleges in which 400,000 pupils study," Cardinal Dias observed. The majority of students are not Christian, he added. "In fact, it is increasingly frequent that the highest state offices are held by people who have studied in Catholic schools," the Cardinal noted. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
