Helping to spread Gospel

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

We receive numerous messages each day from others. Often the meaning is obvious, but sometimes we need to probe more deeply.

That was brought to mind Aug. 13 at St. John Vianney Church in South St. Paul, Minn., in a homily and foreign mission appeal by Fr. Francis Ngungu. Fr. Ngungu is a priest of the Diocese of Kitui, Kenya. The diocese was created in late 1963, largely through the efforts of Irish St. Patrick's Missionary Society (Kiltegan Fathers) and Sisters of Mercy.

At first, Fr. Ngungu said, the missionaries were surprised that one community continually asked for more Bibles. The puzzled missionaries decided to find out why.

Unfortunately, it wasn't because villagers had formed Bible study groups in each family. Instead, they used the thin Bible pages for their home-rolled cigarettes.

The priests solved the problem by telling the people that before they could roll cigarettes in the paper they had to do two things: read both sides of the page and go through the Bible in order - no fair jumping around. Soon, the people were asking them about God and Jesus and no longer using the Bible for cigarettes. Today, Kitui is 15% Catholic and its 143,000 Catholics are served by 46 priests. Plus, there's a waiting list for the seminary. (It costs $1,000 a year per seminarian there, compared to about $40,000 a year in our diocese.)

As you hear the stories of missionaries in your parish be generous, both now and in October, World Mission Month. There are millions - even billions - of people waiting to hear the Gospel message and its answers to their questions. We have a baptismal obligation to bring them the good news.