---------------------------------------------------------- Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/ ----------------------------------------------------------
---------- Forwarded message ---------- India nice place for social work: Italy-based nun By Imran Khan, Indo-Asian News Service Patna, Jan 31 (IANS) The chief of a Europe-based Christian group says India is a "nice place" for social work and its people are warm. "India is a nice place to work. Our sisters have been working here and will continue to spread their selfless humane services," Mechtild Meckl, the mother general of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) in Rome, told IANS in this eastern Indian city. Meckl is visiting Patna to attend the 150th anniversary of the St. Joseph's Convent girls' school run by IBVM nuns. Reluctant at first to speak and wary of saying anything that could turn controversial, the soft-spoken Meckl said when asked for her impressions of India: "Nothing more than that I like India and its people." Christian missionaries have in recent years been accused by hardline Hindu groups of converting people by offering allurements in the guise of social work. Missionaries working in this Hindu-majority country have vehemently denied the charge. Meckl opened the yearlong St. Joseph's jubilee celebration Thursday night by lighting a lamp at a simple ceremony held in the school church. She said she was impressed by the yeoman service IBVM sisters had rendered in India. "I am happy with the work done by our sisters in India, particularly here (in Patna). This is really work that can inspire others." IBVM sisters have been working all across India, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Delhi and even the neighbouring Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. Four IBVM sisters had opened St. Joseph's Convent here with nine pupils in 1853, a time when girls' education was virtually unheard of in the region. The school has now become one of the acclaimed institutions not just in Bihar but across India. The credit for the school's founding goes to Bishop Lewis Anastasius Hartmann, a Swiss by birth who started a mission in India in 1843. Keen to promote education of girls and women, the bishop appealed to several Christian congregations to open schools. Sisters of IBVM responded, travelling to Patna by bullock cart from faraway Mumbai, then Bombay. Englishwoman Mary ward had founded IBVM in 1609. Her mission spread far and wide, taking deep roots in Germany. --Indo-Asian News Service
