In recent weeks, New Jersey became home to the largest Hindu temple outside Asia, Swaminarayan Akshardham in Robbinsville, located within the neighboring Diocese of Trenton. There is a belief that it will become a pilgrim destination not only for Hindus from around the United States, where they make up the largest group of South Asian Americans, but also from across the globe.
India, the nation with the largest share of the world’s 1.2 billion Hindus, recently passed China in terms of raw population, with more demographic growth on the horizon. It is part of the BRICS emerging market nations along with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa; they encompass 27% of the planet’s land mass and 42% of its people. The Vatican has repeatedly called Christians to celebrate “conviviality” and exercise “co-responsibility” in the quest for human dignity alongside men and women of all other religious traditions, including those of the Hindu faith.
Catholic priestly vocations in India have spiked in recent decades, but missionary efforts laying that evangelical groundwork long preceded this present-day influx. This is worthwhile to note in October, which is recognized as World Missions Month in the Catholic Church. One important contribution to this effort has been made by the Claretian Missionaries, whose founder is memorialized by the Universal Church on Oct. 24.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret was a priest from Barcelona who was sent halfway across the world by Pope Pius IX to become the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba in 1850, before returning to Spain under pressure to become the confessor to Queen Isabella II. He founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, today more commonly called the Claretians, who serve in 67 countries through 33 provinces on every continent. The Claretian family also includes an order of missionary nuns, who are among the largest religious institutes for women in the world.
Today the Claretians are one among many active religious organizations in India, with 82 communities in many of the nation’s regions, including Chennai, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh and Kolkata. Claretian spirituality finds many affinities in the contemporary Indian context: a commitment to the poor and forgotten (including people of every background or caste); a passion for serving migrants, refugees and people on the move, and a concern for the welfare of the word’s vast and diverse natural resources. Since 2015, the 13th superior general of the congregation has been Indian Father Mathew Vattamattam, CMF, a native of Kalathoor.
Father Vattamattam has credited his intimate relationship with Christ as the core and foundation of his vocation – and that of all believers. “That’s the gift of Christianity to the world, that each person is uniquely loved by God. … There are billions of people in the world, and there is only one like you. You don’t have to be like anyone else.”
This uniqueness is lived out, he says, by the three transforming processes of the Claretian missionaries, which seem to have echoes for the entire Church in the modern world. “First, to be a congregation going forth to the peripheries. Second, to be a community of witnesses and messengers of the joy of the Gospel. And the third is to be men [or, more broadly, people] who adore God in the Spirit. … Our founder says we should be like a compass. A compass has two poles. One centered and constantly fixed, the other one freely moving. So we should be in Christ, constantly fixed on Him. And then to go forth, to where we are sent.”
As the Church talks more and more about missionary discipleship being a constituent element of lived expressions of the faith in the 21st century, the Claretian charism, whether embodied in humble service in India, Spain, Africa, or North and South America, can provide resources for living such a call with authenticity, enthusiasm and courage.
An alumnus of Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, Michael M. Canaris, Ph.D., teaches at Loyola University, Chicago.
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