Catholic mission in Nepal
Nepal was a Hindu country and public practice of Christianity was not allowed till 2015. With the invitation of King the first missionaries entered into Nepal only for the purpose of educating the royal family. The first missionaries came to the capital city Katmandu, and started to establish slowly around the capital. Due to the lack of openness of the country towards Christian missionaries, mission works were not carried out to the other parts of Nepal. There were many religious persecutions and at present we have only less than 8000 Catholics in the country. On February 10, 2007, Benedict XVI elevated prefecture of Nepal to the rank of a vicariate and we have only one vicariate in whole of Nepal.
Vincentian Mission in Nepal
With the invitation of Bishop Paul Simick, the first Vincentian missionaries -namely Fr. Georgekutty Sasseril CM and Fr. Jijo Mavely CM, from South Indian Province entered into Nepal on July 7, 2022. Bishop Paul assigned the area for Vincentian to Mid-western Nepal which consists of 39 districts. Mid-west part of the country which considered most underdeveloped part of Nepal lacked missionary’s presence and there are only six mission centers in this region. At present we are residing at St Joseph catholic Mission, Kohalpur run by the vicariate of Nepal. Fr. Georgekutty CM is appointed as the director of newly constructed pastoral center in the same campus. He will be animating the clergy and religious in their ongoing formation.
Future Plans for the mission
Establishment of mission centers for direct evangelization of the people is not accepted in the country but people have great demand for Catholic mission schools. Catholic mission in Nepal use this as the means of evangelization and establishment of parishes. All the parishes in the vicariate are established through educational ministry. So our first priority is to begin our mission through education ministry. In order to facilitate the beginning of the ministry, we need to register a society with the government authority and purchase land in the name of the society. We have already registered the society and have identified the area. It is in Dang valley and it is the biggest valley in Asia. We are exploring suitable land in the valley. There is a great scope in the valley for the establishment of different centers.
It is also the need of the time here as people are far behind with regards to knowledge, development and technology. Our presence and mission will surely contribute towards drawing people towards Christ. Moreover it will serve as another golden opportunity to spread our Founder’s Charism and teachings in this new land.
