By Father Patrick McCormick

CALCUTTA -- At 4:40 each morning, 40 young men rise to begin their day of prayer and work among the poor in the slums of Calcutta. These young men live at the motherhouse of the Missionary Brothers of Charity on Mansatala Row in one of the poor sections of Calcutta. Thirty-two of these men, aged 16 to 28, are in the novitiate preparing to become professed brothers in this relatively new religious society.

From 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., the brothers have morning prayers and meditation. At 6 a.m., Mass is celebrated and by 7:30 the brothers have departed for their various places of work among the poor.

Several of the brothers go to the Kalighat Home for the dying destitute where they work with the Missionary Sisters of Charity. This was the first home founded by Mother Theresa of Calcutta when she began her work in the slums in 1950. In this home there are usually between 100 and 120 men and women who have literally been picked up off the streets of Calcutta. When they arrive at the home all are near death. Of those who are brought to the home for the dying, many die within a few days. It was the original intention of Mother Theresa in founding the home that the poorest of the poor should at least have the privilege of dying with dignity.

About half of those who arrive at the home will, in the course of months, regain their health. Most of those who are picked up off the streets are elderly men and women, but in the home there will also be several between the ages of 10 and 25; these usually have run away from home and become seriously sick with no where to turn. Or, they are the young, who in their sickness have been abandoned because their family cannot provide for them.

Several other brothers will go by van each day to a different section of Calcutta to operate a clinic, usually right on the sidewalk, for lepers. Each week those under treatment will come to the sidewalk clinic to be checked by the brothers, receive injections and a week's supply of medication.

In Calcutta, it is estimated that there are somewhere between 50 and 60 thousand lepers. Of these, about 15 thousand are receiving treatment. Once medical treatment is begun, most cases can be fully arrested in two to five years. One of the main problems in dealing with leprosy is that most people do not know that it can be cured and secondly, that once a person is known to be a leper, he or she will usually be driven away from their homes for fear of spreading the dread disease.

Many, when they discover they have leprosy, will remain hidden in their homes for fear of being disowned and being forced to become a beggar. Many presently coming to the brothers for treatment were once people with good jobs and good educations who have been forced to beg for their living because no one will hire them once it is discovered that they are lepers.

Another group of brothers run several morning schools for the "footpath children." These are the children of people who have moved to Calcutta but have not been able to either find work or homes. Many of these people are refugees from Bangladesh or people from villages who are not able to support themselves by farm work. There are probably more than half a million "footpath" dwellers.

Wherever possible they will construct a lean-to along the sidewalks or footpaths of the city. In these lean-tos, constructed of papers and old rags and mud, several people will dwell. Many of the children of these people will have no clothing and all of them will be badly undernourished. The brothers go into an area of "footpath" dwellings and invite the parents to send their children to a nearby area four mornings a week where the brothers will teach them. Usually there will be two brothers for every 60 or 70 children who come.

Daily instructions will include a lesson in Hindi, the principal national language of India, some mathematics ad instructions in hygiene. Usually, if there is water close by, the brothers will take the children each day to bathe. Around noon, a van comes by with a large 100-gallon pan filled with rice and curry. Each child will be given a large dish of food at the end of the class. What they don't eat themselves they will take home to their families.

Around noon, all of the brothers will return to their house. After the noon meal, which is always rice and curry, the same meal that is given the children and lepers, the professed brothers will go out to continue their work. The novices have classes and spiritual exercises in the afternoon. In the evening, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., the brothers have an evening hour of prayer, followed by a light meal of curry, bread and water. By 9 p.m., all the brothers retire for the day.

The Missionary Brothers of Charity have only been in existence since 1963 when Mother Teresa established a branch of the Missionaries of Charity for men. At the present time there are about 175 professed brothers and 32 novices. The motherhouse of the brothers on Mansatala Row would be something like a four-story row house in the United States. All the space is used to its fullest. The brothers themselves sleep on the floor at night. There are practically no chairs except for benches in the dining area and the brothers sit on the floor for their classes and spiritual exercises. The large room that is their chapel in the morning becomes their classroom in the afternoon and the sleeping area at night.

The brothers try to live a way of life as close as possible to the way of life of the poor whom they serve. Their diet is also very simple, consisting of rice and curry, bread, water and tea. Besides the brothers who live at the motherhouse, there are several other houses throughout Calcutta where small groups of brothers live. Several run orphanages for abandoned children while other brothers run colonies for lepers.

In addition to their work in Calcutta, the brothers also have houses in other cities in India, as well as houses in Cambodia, South Vietnam, and in a short while they will establish a house in Los Angeles.

Most of the poor of Calcutta have virtually no idea of who Christ is, or what the Christian people believe. Almost all of the poor whom the brothers and sisters work with are either Hindus or Moslems. Perhaps one in a hundred would be a Christian.

But, if you ask the poor of Calcutta "what is Christianity?" they almost always will tell you one of two answers. Either they will say simply "Mother Theresa" or the "Missionaries of Charity." For the vast majority that will be in their lifetime the totality of their contact with Christ.

(Editor's Note: Father Patrick J. McCormick, a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, is presently a member of the faculty at North American College in Rome. Father McCormick recently spent a month in India and filled in for the novice master at the Missionary Brothers of Charity home in Calcutta.)