Carlo Torriani

SWARGA DWAR

The conversion of a catholic missionary

presented by

Card. Simon Pimenta

PIME Publications, PIME Regional House, Eluru - 534 0-07, A.P., India

APPEAL FOR TALOJA

 Letter No. 21, Bombay, February 1983

 Dear Friends,

    Many times in the previous letters we wrote to you that we were searching for a piece of land. Now we can tell you that we got it. The reasons for this search for a piece of land are many. In all these years, since we started Lok Seva Sangam, we directed all our work from a flat in a housing society, where we had our office, our store, our laboratory, our meetings and sometime our dispensary. We do not have a hospital, we do not have a church and not even, what is commonly known as, a  mission compound. This was giving us difficulties and limitations. Now the work  has increased (an area of control of more than one million people, 24 weekly dispensaries, four doctors, three ambulances, a staff of sixty, etc.) we feel the need of a greater space of independence.

    Very often we mentioned to you the difficulty in finding admission to hospitals for patients very deformed or at the end of their life. Although in Bombay ( 9 millions persons) there are three hospitals for leprosy patients, we experience a shortage of available places, particularly for those who need some shelter.

    The first piece of land the broker showed to us, we did not consider because it was too big (10 hectares), too far away (40 km.) and too costly. But after going around for more than one year, after inspecting scores of plots, after making applications to different government agencies, red tape, waste of time, without concluding anything, we went back to the first place and the land was still available. It is near a village, just outside the greater Bombay, called Taloja, on the old Bombay-Pune road. We got convinced that it was still the best choice. The distance should not be a problem because it is just near to the express highway to Pune. Other nearer plots, smaller and in low-lying area, subject to floods were costing as much as that. Well, we said, if the land is too big we will use it not only for a hospice but also for agricultural rehabilitation. So we decided for Taloja. We paid the earnest money and we hope to take possession within six months if….we can get the total sum needed. Ten lacks more are needed.

It is a big amount. We are a little afraid. May be none of us can muster so much. But a little all together, I trust, we can achieve it. God uses thousand rivers to fill the ocean. This project will be called with the title of Our Mother Mary, in Latin Janua Coeli, Gate of heaven, in Hindi Swarga Dwar, so that those who enter will have a chance of a better life, and those who are out should know the key of the gate of heaven is the hands of the poor, the leprosy patients, the discarded of society. Jesus told us: ”Happy the poor, theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”. And Peter more sharply: “The stone rejected by the builders has become the corner stone” that means that the Kingdom of Heaven is founded on a discarded stone. Great Joy and great hope for the leprosy patients, discarded always and every where. This is the most radical and total rehabilitation. This is a message of hope for every one of us: if in the Kingdom of Heaven there is place for the leprosy patient, the symbol of segregation, there will be place also for me and for you in spite of our unworthiness and sinfulness.

I pray our Lady, Gate of Heaven, to inspire your hearts to be generous with us, so that we can realise this project in her memory.