The Catholic church in Marpa village of Sitamarhi. Telegraph picture

Motihari, Dec. 24: With 104 years of service to humanity, the Catholic Church standing on the other side of Lal Bakeya river, dividing East Champaran from Sitamarhi district, has been all along working to foster peace and fraternity in this remote and inaccessible area.

Surrounded on three sides by the Lal Bakeya and Bagmati rivers, this mission under Capuchin Society started functioning here in early 1907, on over 500 acres of land and some other assets of the “Marpa Indigo Kothi” handed over by the British empire, said Father Philip, who has been living in the state for quite some time.

Marpa Mission was founded by Father Gregor (Italy) in 1907 and was developed by Father Lucos of Bettiah during 1912-1932. However, nearly 60 square kilometre of area around this remote mission in Sitamarhi district is situated inside a “Ring Bandh” which usually turns into an island during the rainy season.

This Mission has already distributed a large part of the land among the poor and down trodden, said Father Philip in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph.

Talking about the development in the area, Father Philip said, earlier, the administration hardly took notice of the people residing in that undeveloped area, but presently things have started changing.

Present in-charge of the church, Father Pradeep Sah feels that this particular area is changing fast. The plying of buses for Patna from Jamuaghat, which had virtually stopped in the past 24 years, has been restored recently, he said.

Pradeep Sah added that after completion of a bridge over the Bagmati river, Bairgania has been connected with Sitamarhi making communication easier for the people of this area.

St. Teresa School owned by the Marpa Mission has nearly 500 students in the primary and higher classes up to Class X. Most of the students belong to non-Christian families living around the school.

This school is financially supported by a committee of some local people headed by the present Father in the school, said Philip.

He expressed satisfaction over the remarkable decline in the dropout rate of students after Class VII or even before that. “We have also started taking steps for effective ban of child marriage which often deviated the students from learning. Hardly twenty five percent of them continue their studies after class X,” the Father admitted.

This entire area falling under Bairgania block in Sitamarhi district remained deprived of natural development for a long time. Money for telephone connection and electricity supply was deposited by the Mission in 2002 and 2003, but the church is yet to get either facility.

Father Philip said that the Capuchin society worked in the whole of northern India, except Bengal, with an aim to offer employment to the weaker sections and uplift them financially. He said that wherever there was a Christian Mission, it always strived to create harmony among human beings irrespective of their caste and creed.

“Saint Francis Assay belonged to the Capuchin Society,” Father Philip added.