Off Beat

Treating snakebite victims to spread Christ’s love
For the past 19 years, a Catholic priest has been treating snakebite victims as a way to present Christ in a "difficult" region. Father Thomas Thalanany of Ujjain diocese in central India started
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Swami Dayananda’s Ashram attracts local people
With saffron cloth wrapped around his waist and shoulders, a barefoot Franciscan missioner sits in yoga meditation posture. Villagers, some of whom are not Christians, gather around him in his
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Priest with healing hands combines massage, prayer
Father Godfrey Vilasal Thapo has brought relief to thousands of poor, ailing villagers in northeastern India through his healing hands. People flock to the 35-year-old Catholic priest wherever he
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Snake Father charms villagers
Life has begun all over again for Venkaiah Seenu, who pawned his house and his wife's jewelry to pay for hospital treatment of a snakebite but was still left bedridden. In 2001 he met the "snake
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