Fathers Vijai and Ravi will today receive this crucifix according to the ritual of the departure ceremony, which goes back over 150 years. The two are destined for Mexico and for Hispanics in the United States.

Rome (Asianews) - Two Indian priests of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), Fathers Vijai and Ravi Marneni, will today receive a crucifix before leaving for missionary work in Mexico.  The ritual will take place during the Mass, on the feast day of Saint Alberico Crescitelli, a PIME father martyred in China during the Boxer Rebellion (1900).  The Mass will be celebrated today at 6:30 p.m., in the chapel of the generalate house in Rome at 11 via Guerrazzi.

Vijai and Ravi, 35 year-old cousins from the same village in the diocese of Nalgonda (Andhra Pradesh), studied theology in India and the Philippines.  In Italy, they are finishing language courses in Italian, spoken by most of the members of the missionary institute. Ravi, ordained in 2003, has already spent several years in the missions in India, in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil. Nadu. P. Vijai  worked in northern India, in Madya Pradesh, Orissa, and Maharashtra.

The PIME, an international missionary institute, accepts vocations from all over the world, but asks all to be willing to carry out their mission outside of their country of origin.

The ceremony of the bestowal of the crucifix is one of the oldest rituals of the PIME.  In it, the departing missionary receives a blessed crucifix, as the "inseparable companion of his apostolic efforts, his support in danger and difficulty, his comfort in life and in death".

After receiving the crucifix, the missionary publicly proclaims his desire to serve the mission of Christ "to the point of shedding my blood for this".

Fr Ravi and Fr Vijai will then leave for Mexico, where they will take intensive Spanish language courses.  After this, Fr Ravi will remain in the diocese of Acapulco, among the poor of the Sierra. Fr Vijai will be sent to the diocese of Detroit (USA) to serve the Hispanic community.

• Rome
• missionaries
• Pontifical
• Institute
• Foreign
• Missions
• Mexico
• United
• States
• Hispanic
• Catholics