Mumbai: An international Catholic ministry aimed at helping married Christians live holier lives is helping families in one of India’s poorest areas. Couples for Christ, founded in the Philippines in 1981, established ANCOP (Answering the Cry of the Poor) to help work for social justice through community development and education.
In 2012, Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in India’s Odisha state was introduced to Couples for Christ during a visit to Toronto and invited them to come to his archdiocese. “I was interested. I understood that CFC would be of missionary service to our couples in Kandhamal, and in our Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar,” Barwa told Crux.
Kandhamal was the scene of India’s worst anti-Christian pogrom in 2007-2008, and Barwa said Christian couples and families suffered unspeakable trauma. A series of riots led by radical Hindus left roughly 100 people dead, thousands injured, 300 churches and 6,000 homes destroyed, and 50,000 people displaced, many forced to hide in nearby forests where more died of hunger and snakebites.
The mobs had been incensed by rumors that Christians had killed a local Hindu holy man. (It later emerged that the holy man had actually been assassinated by Maoist guerillas in the area.)
A mission team from Toronto, composed by Jun and Malou Clarito and Francis Almeida came to India, and the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar now has about 500 members of Couples for Christ. The archbishop told Crux that he heard about the ANCOP programs and was keen to have the Educational Sponsorship Program (ESP) initiated in his archdiocese.
“The ANCOP movement extends its help to the abandoned and neglected children in partnering with Catholic parishes. We answer the cry of the poor through effective child education and community development programs, anchored on values formation,” he said. MattersIndia
