BENGAL PLEA - From A C.S.C. Archbishop

The following is a letter from Archbishop Lawrence L. Graner, C.S.C., addressed to the Notre Dame student body. Though the letter is decades old, its message about the meaning and purpose of the Bengal Mission Bouts holds true today. In 1993, the Archbishop’s letter is framed on a wall in the Boxing Room.

Dear Notre Dame Student Body:

No Notre Dame man ever completely leaves the campus. Wherever he may find himself, he keeps returning for the bits of mind and heart he left behind. Few owe her more memories than this "exile." Graduation, and a return four years later for priestly ordination in Sacred Heart Church. Twenty years later, consecration as Bishop of Dacca, Pakistan, in the same church. Before that, induction as a member of the Notre Dame Chapter of the Knights of Columbus. You should not wonder at the closeness I feel.

The winds that storm across the lakes blow hot here in Bengal. Their coming brings mingled memories of March, Fighting Irish, the Fieldhouse, hardy lads vying in a small roped square, the world’s most vocal student body cheering the victors. And, rightly, the losers. Each has taken the challenge and personally proved himself a man.

The specific reference is, of course, to the annual Bengal Bouts. Everyone on campus recognizes the name. I wonder how many know just what the purpose of the Bouts is. Beyond this, I wonder how many know what this program means to a small, but solid, group of Notre Dame men on the other side of the world, who are carrying on the tradition of Notre Dame in their truest form.

I wish I could conduct you and the whole student body on a complete tour of the Bengal missions here in Pakistan. I believe your enthusiasm for the Bouts and for the Bengal missionaries of Holy Cross would know a blessed closeness and intensity never before felt.

I could open our mission records to show you the tens of thousands of Christians in a territory famous for its difficulty of conversion. I could show you the statistics from 25 established mission centers and high schools, sever orphanages and foundling homes. All this and much more manned by a personnel of more than 200 priests, brothers and sisters, over 90 of whom are members of Holy Cross.

I would take you across Dacca City to see our new Notre Dame College. Less than ten years old, it is now in a new building completed three years ago, and has a registration of 400. In another section of Dacca I would show you Holy Family Hospital, the finest equipped and staffed in eastern Pakistan. It is administered by the American Medical Mission Sisters, who have another fine hospital in our mission at Mymensingh.

Then we would go to Jalchatra, in the fabled Madhupur Forest to inspect Our Lady of Mercy Leprosarium. It is small and inadequate compared to the numbers of lepers in this region, thousands of them. But the care given by the Marianite Sisters of Holy Cross is the best the field of medicine knows.

From here we would swing outward on a tour of the Garo "hill missions." It is largely jungle country, the way of life primitive. From half a dozen main centers you would find the priests caring for numerous projects, the Sisters dispensing mercy through small hospitals and medical dispensaries.

This is a jet-swift view of the work. But it might give you some idea of the enormous missionary enterprise you and your fellow workers and students share through your Bengal Bouts and other mission help. A little band of Holy Cross missionaries "wrought a miracle in the Indiana wilderness," which is today Notre Dame. Another band is sweating in a spiritual wilderness where the miracle which is being wrought is perhaps not so famous, but is every bit as impressive to those of us who see it coming true.

From a Notre Dame man in Bengal to the Notre Dame men at school today, the assurance of the gratitude of all the missionaries of Holy Cross -- Notre Dame men -- for the success you will make of the Bengal Bouts this year.

Gratefully in Our Lady,

Lawrence L. Graner, C.S.C.
Archbishop of Dacca,
E. Bengal, Pakistan