Catholic fights tobacco use among students

A Catholic layman has been campaigning against smoking and tobacco use for the past 12 years following advice from Blessed Teresa of Kolkata.

Vincent Nazareth said he met the saintly nun, who founded the Missionaries of Charity (MC) congregation, after his 5-year-old son's death in 1994 from a brain tumor. Nazareth was suffering from depression at the time and "Mother Teresa inspired me to do something for other children in my son's name."

Speaking to a group of tobacco addicts in Mangalore, southern India, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day on May 31, he said he is now able to "help many more children" as a result.

The 50-year-old former insurance-firm employee, said he left his job after his son's death and worked with the MC nuns in Mumbai until Blessed Teresa's death in 1997. In 1999, he registered a charitable trust in his son's name to campaign against tobacco addiction, after working among cancer patients on his own and realizing that tobacco is a cause of some cancers.

In his May 31 talk, Nazareth, who now lives in Mumbai, noted that tobacco causes 70 percent of mouth and lung cancers. In India, about 800,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases yearly, he said, quoting findings from the Indian Council of Medical Research.

He regretted that the number of young people using tobacco has increased in the past few years.

In the past decade, Nazareth has visited about 200 schools across India to campaign against tobacco use, using audio visual aids in his presentations. He explains to students that smoking and tobacco use increase the chances of people getting heart attacks, bronchitis, lung diseases, poor appetites, and other health problems.

On June 1, about 5,000 students from 12 Christian schools in Mangalore pledged to avoid using tobacco, inspired by Nazareth's campaign. During the oath-taking ceremony, students also promised to motivate others to quit tobacco use.

Nazareth pointed out that most cigarette companies now target teenagers as part of their long term business plan. He said surveys by health departments of various states have indicated that tobacco chewing has increased "alarmingly" among school children.

Nazareth says what sustains his campaign is his "ardent faith" in the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, besides encouragement from his wife and daughter.

Babu Thomas, a tobacco user in Mangalore, told UCA News he decided to quit his habit after listening to Nazareth's lecture and seeing horrific pictures of cancer patients. He said he had always held the view that "one day we all have to die, so why not smoke." However, after watching the pictures "I decided to quit."