Faculty of Medical Sciences in Warangal: Fr. Colombo's dream comes true

The Indian government has officially recognized the college for most marginalised in Andhra Pradesh wanted by the PIME missionary who died in 2009, still remembered today even by non-Christians. Today with Nuncio Msgr. Girelli the blessing of the foundation stone of the complex for nurses and paramedics. Bishop Bala: "The first miracle of Fr. Augustus."

Warangal (AsiaNews) - Fourteen years after his death, Fr. Augustus Colombo's dream of a great university of medical sciences among the last in Warangal, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, becomes a reality.

This afternoon during a Mass presided over by the apostolic nuncio to India Msgr. Leopoldo Girelli, along with Indian Cardinals Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, and Felipe Neri Ferrao, archbishop of Goa, with all the bishops of Andhra Pradesh, the foundation stone was blessed of the college for nurses and paramedics, the new wing of the Fr. Colombo Institute of Medical Science, of the diocese of Warangal.

This  already includes a large hospital and the faculty of medicine, both wanted by the Italian PIME missionary who died in the summer of 2009, after nearly sixty years of apostolate among these people.

Today's ceremony comes a few months after a very important step: last March the Indian government granted its official recognition to the Medical College, which thus became a full-fledged university.

Testifying to the uniqueness of this event is the fact that it is only the third Catholic facility of its kind in all of India: it will go alongside the St. John's National Academy of Health Science promoted by the Indian Bishops' Conference in Bangalore and the Br. Muller Medical College of the Mangalore Diocese.

"I think this recognition was Fr. Colombo's first miracle," smiles Msgr. Udumala Bala, who grew up in the PIME missionary's parish and has been bishop for 10 years in this community where there are just 75,000 Catholics, mostly tribal.

But Fr. Augustus remains a patrimony of everyone in Warangal: "He lives in the hearts of the poor," says Msgr. Bala.

"Many Christians also come to pray at his tomb: they ask for his intercession for healing from an illness or to have children, they confide their stories to him in the visitation register. That is why we are working for the opening of the cause of beatification. Everyone remembers how much Fr. Augustus did for the formation of young people. Even local politicians in their speeches mention his name as a source of pride, somewhat like what happens at the national level in India with Mother Teresa."

Born in Cantù (Como) in 1927, Fr. Colombo had arrived in India in 1952: in almost sixty years of missionary work in India, in addition to his pastoral work he has carried out a great number of initiatives for the promotion of the poor: from the company for the production of "miracle rice" to rural banks, from assistance to lepers to handicraft work for women.

In education he left the Institute of Technology and Science, which has already trained thousands of engineers in Warangal. Now the Faculty of Medical Sciences will complete the design already started with the opening of the hospital.

Photo by fr. Chinnappa