Two Holy Cross Brothers Visit Their Compatriots in Toronto

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(L-R) Brother Prodip Louis Rozario, C.S.C. and Brother Binoy Gomes, C.S.C. in Toronto
Photo (April 13, 2009) © Ujjal Peter D'Costa

Brother Binoy Gomes, C.S.C., Provincial of the Holy Cross Brothers in Bangladesh, and Brother Prodip Louis Rozario, C.S.C., Headmaster of Holy Cross High School, Bandura, recently paid a seven-day visit to Toronto to meet with Bangladeshi Catholics.

They participated in the Holy Week liturgies in different Catholic churches, visited the C.N. (Canadian National) Tower, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Niagara Falls. On the Easter Sunday evening, they attended the gathering of the Bangladesh Catholic Association of Ontario (BCAO). They especially enjoyed meeting with some of their friends, relatives and former students.

"I like meeting people whom I did not see for some years. I am thrilled to see the Niagara Falls. I had the idea that the Falls really fell from a mountain! Now I see that it is not so. The greenhouse in the Niagara Falls area was a wonderful experience for me," muses Brother Binoy Gomes.

Before coming to Toronto, the Brothers visited Connecticut, Notre Dame in Indiana, Austin and San Antonio in Texas, and Montreal in Quebec. In Connecticut, they visited relatives and friends and led the Stations of the Cross in Bangla in a church. In Notre Dame, they met with retired American Holy Cross Fathers, Brothers and Sisters who had served as missionaries in Bangladesh.

In Austin, Texas, they went to St. Edward's University, run by the Brothers of Holy Cross. They attended the convocation ceremony of the Holy Cross Institute where priests, Brothers and Sisters, engaged in education in schools and colleges in different countries, participated. Brother Prodip Louis Rozario, C.S.C., presented a paper on dialogue, proclamation and education in Bangladesh. They also had the occasion to meet with the Bangladeshi Brother Bijoy Rodrigues, C.S.C., who is completing his doctoral study on Educational Leadership at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

After their U.S. trip, they flew to Montreal in Quebec, Canada, and met with Holy Cross priests, Brothers and Sisters who worked in Bangladesh. Their visit to St. Joseph's Oratory was a memorable one.

The Holy Cross Brothers in Bangladesh

The Catholic Church in Bangladesh is a small but growing Church with a Catholic population of about 310,000. There are 77 Holy Cross Brothers, of whom three are Americans and one Canadian.

Brothers run eight Catholic high schools and two technical schools, two rehabilitation centres for drug addicts (Apon and BARACA) and administer boys' hostels in Catholic schools. They are also involved in counselling, spiritual direction, writing books and doing translations, helping out in different diocesan and national commissions, and youth movements (YCS and SCM). They also assist in different seminaries and Relgious formation houses.