‘Northeast owes a lot to Christian missionaries’. A large number of people in the Northeast have been educated through missionary schools.

Bishop John Thomas Kattrukudiyil of Itanagar has said that a large number of population in northeast region is educated because of the institutions set up by the Christian missionaries.

“Everybody knows that the whole of Northeast owes a great deal to the missionaries because a large percentage of the population which is educated have gone through our schools,” the prelate said in an interview published in Aid to the Church in Need.

He said that the government and tribal population in the Northeast accept the missionaries because of “our contribution in the field of education.”

The prelate said that many of those who initiated anti-conversion law send their children and grandchildren to Catholic schools.

The bishop said that the rich people do not want the poor to send their wards to missionary schools fearing that they might get converted.

“They want the poor to remain ignorant. They just want to use the Church facilities for themselves,” he said.

Bishop Kattrukudiyil said that there are at least about 180,000 Catholics in the region and nearly 10,000 get baptised every year.

On the rise in the Christian faith in Arunachal Pradesh, he said that the immediate reason was the desire of the young people of the state to profit from the charitable activities of the Christian missionaries.

“They saw the good activities done by the missionaries and since the missionaries were not allowed in Arunachal Pradesh they thought: ‘well let us go out and invite them,’” he said.

Another factor is that the young were not at all happy with their traditional religious practices as they used to offer many sacrifices when someone was sick.

“This is very expensive and as the traditional religion imposed more and more such expenses they then turned to the new religion, Christianity that asked them only to pray to Jesus,” the prelate added.
“The youth found that when they prayed to Jesus, they were getting healed, they were getting graces. So that helped a lot to bring about change,” he said.

Source: Aid to the Church in Need

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