Earlier this year, Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville visited India to express his thanks and gratitude to the families and religious order superiors of the 11 Indian priests living and serving in his diocese.

“Since I’ve been bishop, every priest from India has invited me to go to their home country and experience India and see their Catholic homeland,” Bishop Spalding said. “Out of respect for their good work and service in the diocese, I made the decision to go.”

“I wanted to visit with the families of the priests serving in the Diocese of Nashville and thank them for their sharing of their son, their brother, their uncle,” the bishop told the Tennessee Register, Nashville’s diocesan newspaper.

He also wanted to visit with the superiors of the religious orders of the Indian priests in Nashville. Six of the priests are members of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, four are members of the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales, and one is a Franciscan.

“The presence of all our foreign-born priests allows us to do a lot of things in a lot of ministries,” Bishop Spalding said, including having them in the two diocesan high schools as well as serving as chaplains for various ministries and Catholic Organizations, he said.

“Three, I wanted to see Catholic India,” Bishop Spalding said.

His visit on January 15-29 took him to the State of Kerala, which has the largest Catholic population in India and is where St Thomas the Apostle landed when he first brought Christianity to the country.

Catholics make up little less over 1 percent of India’s total population, but 22 percent of the population in Kerala, explained Father Thomas Kalam, a Carmelite of Mary Immaculate, who is associate pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He helped Bishop Spalding by arranging his itinerary for the trip and served as his guide.