The Situation of Christians in India
With the world’s largest population (1.465 billion people), India is a young, rapidly growing nation. The Christian community in India is one of the oldest in the world and accounts for 2.5% of the population, or approximately 35 million believers. It was evangelized in the first century by Saint Thomas the Apostle (in the year 52) during his visit to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
These Saint Thomas Christians, who follow the Eastern Syriac Catholic rite, are organized into two major archdioceses: the Syro-Malankara (500,000 believers) and the Syro-Malabar (5 million believers), found primarily in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (Madras, the site of Saint Thomas’s martyrdom), in the south of the country, but they are also growing rapidly in other states.
Despite official religious freedom, acts of violence target Christian and Muslim minorities.
Field Activities
In India, L’Œuvre d’Orient supports 70 projects annually led by 49 religious communities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as well as development assistance for new dioceses, parishes, and missionary communities in other states.
These communities serve the most marginalized poor through initiatives such as helping to establish a school for “ragpicker” children, who sort through waste at Delhi’s landfills. This school provides these “untouchable” children with access to education, as well as a uniform and lunch.
L’Œuvre d’Orient also participates in the construction or renovation of churches, parish centers, rectories, centers for people with severe disabilities, homes for widows, minor and major seminaries, clinics, and hospitals. Training programs for the clergy, religious congregations, and lay catechists help strengthen the Church’s pastoral and missionary presence, especially in remote areas.
Asha Kiran School (Telangana state) for young people with disabilities.
Purchasing an Ambulance
Purchase of an ambulance by the Carmelite community and the Goretty Bhavan retirement home in Nadavayal, Wayanad District (Kerala).
