Fr. Laroche at Tuticorin after the Mass

When, after all the formalities, the traveler leaves the airport, he is at once hit by the appalling poverty of that city of 15 million people (Bombay). At every traffic stop, beggars, cripples and even lepers rush upon the taxis which, with buses, constitute practically the whole traffic on the roads, clamoring for a few rupees. It is very hard to refuse them; you would need a heart of stone. Fortunately, the lights change, the traffic moves, or your wallet would soon be empty!

After celebrating Mass in my hotel room, I set about contacting three friends whose addresses I had brought with me. With some difficulty, my companion and I found our way to the home of Mr. George Moraes, a professor at the University of Bombay. As his name indicates, Mr. Moraes is of Portuguese descent and originally from Goa. He took us to see the Salesian priest, Fr. Aurelius Maschio, SDB, who is of Italian origin. We were able to discuss with him the plans for our apostolate in India, that huge peninsula which, even without Pakistan, covers 3,268,000 square kilometers, about six times the size of France, and with 600 million people.

The old missionary was very willing to share his long experience with us. Later Mr. Moraes drove us to the home of one of his friends, Mr. Fernandez, whom Msgr. Lefebvre met more than three years ago when passing through Bombay on his way home from Australia. Last August our Superior General, Fr. Schmidberger, also visited him. I celebrated Mass in his home the following Sunday, but several families were away because of the Christmas holidays. After Mass, the first question I was asked was: "When will you come back again?"

Next day we continued discussion with our friends who might be said to constitute the coordinators of the traditional group in Bombay. Here we became aware of something that was to reappear throughout our brief journey in that vast continent where a mere two percent of the population is Catholic. They remain profoundly Catholic. Of course, two percent of India's population represents 14 million Catholics, and most of them live along the coasts of the southern half of the peninsula.

Here, too, the disastrous consequences of the Second Vatican Council are being felt. The bishops are modernist and the younger clergy follow them, but without any enthusiasm. Like the people, they feel confused and lost by the "indianisation" of the liturgy, and seem ready to return to Tradition.

No doubt this desire among the faithful would enable the traditional movement to develop for the good of souls and of the Church, but more information must be spread among them, and more frequent contacts made. According to our friends, one way of starting a strong movement for a return to Tradition would be to ignore the reactions of the hierarchy and set up a school. Actually, the children of Catholic families are being treated badly. Although most schools are run by Catholics, in some places the pupils in them are all Hindu or Moslem. (Twenty percent of the population is Moslem) Since there are not sufficient places for all in the schools, parents who can afford it pay a surcharge over and above the normal fee to ensure entry for their children. If the school authorities do not keep an eye on this, it ends up by excluding poor Catholic children, who are then obliged to find schools far from home, or remain without education.

If the Society were to open a school here, there would be no shortage of pupils or teachers.

On January 1 we left Bombay for Hyderabad, capital of Andra Pradesh, the former Persian kingdom which remained independent up till the departure of the British in 1946. It is now part of the Indian Union. It was the first time a member of the Society of St. Pius X had been in that part of India, and although our plane arrived over three hours late, our friends, Messrs. Reddy and Stevens, President and Secretary respectively of the local traditionalist association, Catholic True Faith Defense Society of Andra Pradesh, were faithfully waiting for us. According to custom, they honored their guests by placing garlands of red roses around our necks.

We stayed only one day there, but long enough to be aware of all the work that could be done. This group could do a great deal. The faithful long for the traditional ways, but they lack the Holy Mass. They have no priest. Their energy would be increased ten-fold if they had a priest to sustain them, and bring them the Sacraments. The task is huge and can only be done in stages.

After a brief stopover in Bangalore, the plane set us down in Cochin where we arrived on the afternoon of January 3, to be welcomed by the oldest of our Indian friends, Mr. Sebastian. He met His Grace three and a half years before, in Bombay. He also met Fr. Hogan and last August, Fr. Schmidberger and Fr. Williamson also came to Cochin to see him and Mr. Sebastian spent a few days at Ec—ne soon after he met Msgr. Lefebvre. Mass was celebrated at his home the following day. There we met one of his journalist friends who interviewed us about the Society and the purpose of our visit to India. Here again the Christmas holidays prevented many traditionalists from being present. However, the basis for a future apostolate has been laid down, and a location settled upon for the celebration of Holy Mass on future occasions.

Before leaving Cochin for Madurai, we met at the airport a traditionalist friend who had traveled a great distance to speak to us. To make the Society known, he is undertaking to translate and print the Letter to Friends and Benefactors into malayam, the language of Kerala.

We went by bus from Madurai to Tuticorin, the last important stop on our journey. It took three whole hours to travel 165 km on a rather rough road! We were hoping to meet people there from Sri Lanka who had recently written to our headquarters for information about the Old Mass and the training of priests in the Society. Tuticorin is on the tip of India, not far from Cape Comorin. Unfortunately, there was only a letter waiting for us; the people we were to meet had not been able to make the journey. However, we had the joy of meeting an Indian priest, a friend of our Superior-General, who put us in contact with a very traditional group of priests and faithful whom we had not even heard of. They are known as The Apostles of Our Lady.

Tuticorin, a city of 150,000 people, where St. Francis Xavier laboured so long, is still thirty percent Catholic. Among them, we found priests and laity really faithful to the true Catholic Faith. This was one of the most fruitful stages of our journey. There was a magazine published there several years ago in the language of the country, Tamil, with the imprimatur of the bishop. It is still being published but minus the imprimatur since the bishop objected to the well-founded criticism appearing in it.

Since the Indult recognizing the right of the faithful to ask for the celebration of the Old Mass, this magazine has brought the matter before its readers, together with an explanation of the Holy Mass. This group has also produced a cassette which enables everyone to follow the Solemn Mass in Latin and the Gregorian chant. However, their letter to the bishop asking for the opportunity to benefit by the Papal Indult remains unanswered.

If an answer does come, it can only be negative, since the priests who have made the request are excluded by the conditions of the Indult. In fact, they have celebrated according to the Novus Ordo, but always in Latin, and using the Roman Canon; moreover, they are all parish priests. So, strictly speaking, they cannot benefit from the Indult. In any case, they seem to have their minds made up to resume celebrating the Old Mass at which they assisted with so much joy, together with some of their parishioners, in the hotel where we stayed in Tuticorin. It was the Feast of the Epiphany, this year on Sunday, the Feast on which Our Divine Lord manifested Himself to the pagan world. As the liturgy of the day reminded us, the Holy Sacrifice that some of our new friends attended was offered for the conversion of India. It must surely be part of God's plan that our own Fraternity of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary, as our Society of St. Pius X is also known, should one day collaborate with our new Indian friends, the Apostles of Our Lady.

Since we returned home, we have already received over 2,500 signatures from Tuticorin in support of the petition to the Holy Father and the Secretary of State from the Apostles of Our Lady. Their accompanying letter concludes with an invitation to return and a prayer to the Blessed Virgin. "We fervently hope that the Immaculate Heart of Mary is going to send us the Society of St. Pius X."

We had been hoping to visit Goa before ending our brief Indian journey and pray at the tomb of Saint Francis Xavier which is there. Despite all our efforts, we were unable to obtain seats on the plane to Goa. We stayed on until evening before leaving for Bombay where we were to board a plane for Europe. We had the satisfaction of finding a Catholic taxi driver who took us as far as Bangalore, where there is a beautiful basilica dedicated to Our Lady, the center of many pilgrimages. So it happened that it was to Our Lady that we entrusted the Society's future apostolate in India.

What sort of apostolate will it be?

At first it will have to be an itinerant one, according to the plan laid down by our superiors. The priest appointed to India will go there three or four times a year to console the groups we have visited and who have arranged Mass locations. But he will also seek to make the work of the Society better known; he will give support to the faithful priests in their isolation, strengthen the attachment of the faithful to the traditional Mass, and extend the number of groups desiring to remain truly Catholic, bound to the Roman liturgy. If it be the will of God, in a year or two there will be a priory, then a school or a seminary. At the moment there is no shortage of vocations but the information available in the seminaries is a disaster, doctrinally as well as spiritually. A priest we met in Tuticorin related to us that before the Council there were many conversions from the Hindu sects, but that has ceased. Not surprising, since they now teach in the seminaries that you should not try to convert Hindus, but teach them to be good Hindus!

Fr. Laroche with the family of Mr. Sebastian at Cochin

The task, therefore, is a huge one, but exciting also when one thinks of all the good that may be done. But the labourers are few.

From the south coast of India, on January 15, 1544, Saint Francis Xavier wrote to his fellow Jesuits in Rome:

It is now more than a year since Father Patrice Laroche, a professor at Ec—ne, made the journey through India related on these pages. His companion on that occasion was seminarian Anthony Esposito from Zimbabwe, ordained to the priesthood last June and now working with the Society of St. Pius X in Australia. Father Laroche has written to us as follows:

It is the intention of the Society to become more active in India, as indicated in the letter from Fr. Laroche. As Fr. Schmidberger puts it: "It seems that God wants to open up the whole world to our apostolate." Much work has been done in India by way of preparation. It is now time to consolidate this work. Commencing in a few weeks, the Society's work in India will become much more regular. The Indian mission will be dependent upon a priest from Australia who will visit India initially every two months, and will remain for a month on each visit.

We at Catholic have an increasing circulation in India; most of our readers in that country are priests still active in parish work, and resisting the "Hinduisation" of the Mass. May we ask for your prayers to ensure that this new venture by these young priests will be successful.