Bp Dennis Panipitchai
Auxiliary of Miao
When is your Episcopal Ordination scheduled for?
It will take place on 2nd August, in Borduria of Miao diocese where I had worked as a parish priest, by Archbishop Thomas Menamprambil.
What is your motto?
Romans 1:1 “A servant of Jesus Christ, chosen to announce the gospel of God.”
Why did you choose it as your motto?
Because I want to be a missionary with the intension of making Jesus Christ known in love. I am originally from Tamil Nadu and I came up here to the North when I was in the novitiate. The Salesians in India were asked to take up three countries in Africa. Fr Tony D’Souza, the former provincial of Mumbai province, was put in charge of going around to get volunteers for Africa. That was in 1979. He had come to our novitiate and talked to us about the missions in Africa. Then our former bishop Mathai Kochuparambil, who was the provincial of that time, had come to meet us in the novitiate. Meanwhile, the one who first met the provincial and asked for permission to go to Africa was allowed. The second one also was allowed. Then came my turn. When I expressed my desire to go to Africa, he gave me a slap and said, ‘My dear fellow, your Africa is Arunachal Pradesh.’ From that time on- wards, I stopped thinking of Africa and Arunachal became my dream.
Two of your decisions didn’t materialise. The rst was that you wanted to be a Brother and the second was that you wanted to go to Africa. Why did you make them?
Actually, I wanted to be a priest, but then, I was placed in the brother’s formation home and asked to do technical studies, which I did. Slowly, I realized that this is not actually my call.
So I requested my provincial to allow me to change track and he sent me for theological studies.
What was the technical education that you underwent?
I went for printing technology.
Why did you aspire to go to Africa?
I wanted very much to be a missionary in Africa until my provincial told me to forget about it.
Now you have been appointed as an auxiliary Bishop of Miao diocese. how would you describe the diocese?
The diocese covers 8 districts of the state of Arunachal Pradesh – Tirap, Changlang, Lohit, Longding, Anjaw, Namsai, Dibang Valley and Lower Dibang Valley Districts. Neighboring dioceses are Itanagar to the east and Dibrugarh to the west. To the north and north- east is China, to the south and southeast Myanmar. The diocese has around 4 lakhs people. The diocese is subdivided into 31 parishes. I think at the moment the diocese has got 31 diocesan priests, the rest are all religious priests and Sisters. Salesians are one of the major congregations working there, but there are several others too.
What was your pastoral experience in Miao during the last twelve years?
For three years I worked from Assam, visiting the villages regularly. During this period, I took charge as the dean of Studies, Salesian pre-novitiate, Rua Home, Jorhat, Dibrugarh (1992- 1995); Administrator of Don Bosco Bible School, Tinsukia, (1995-1997); In-charge of Don Bosco School, Borduria, (1998- 2000); Principal of Don Bosco School, Miao and Assistant Priest in the same Parish, Arch- diocese of Imphal (2001-2004); Parish Priest at Mary Help of Christians Church, Borduria, (2004-2009) and Principal of Don Bosco School, Kohima (2009-2015). Since 2015 I was the Parish Priest of Mary Immaculate Parish, Chingmeirong, in the Archdiocese of Imphal. In Don Bosco Bible School, we were training the students for Arunachal Pradesh. They were given both education and training.
Arunachal pradesh is special in a few ways. It borders china and Burma. The RSS had trained people to go and make all its inhabitants hindus. how did they go about it and how far did they succeed?
Since Arunachal Pradesh is a border state, they do not want the tribals to come in contact with the rest of the country, like other tribals in Nagaland and Manipur, who were very much influenced by Christianity. One of the reasons why they introduced a protective law in the state was to prevent people from the rest of India from coming here to preach Christianity.
Why were they afraid of christianity?
Christianity is always considered a foreign religion, but the tribals have actually a natural inclination towards it. Somehow, Jesus Christ attracts them; there is no doubt about that.
What is the real strength of your people?
We have, at the moment in the diocese of Miao, ninety thousand faithful.
What do you think is their strong point?
Their faith! no doubt about that. We need to build up their faith through evangelization, Catechesis and education.
What you think is their draw back if any?
Probably, we need to strengthen their faith. The catechism doesn’t really provide vigour deep down. as a result, we find many other Christian denominations trying various ways to attract them through some miracles and clairvoyance. Even financial assistance also is being offered.
how widespread is education among the people?
We just started our mission of education. May be ten batches have passed out from our school. The tribals were not given the kind of benefits that the rest of the India got. They have always been used as a showpiece by the government. But Christianity has done a great service to them in the field of education.
What was the political motive of keeping those tribal people always undeveloped and uneducated?
Most probably they wanted to keep these people kind of subservient to the rest. Being a border state, they will not find a voice to come up with a demand for independence or for their rights. When there is no education, usually people just get up in the morning, cook food, go to the field and return home in the evening. They will be quiet happy that way and are not concerned about what is going on in the rest of the world.
Are they getting into the mainstream?
Yes, there is no doubt about that. Actually, the educated have been spreading out to the whole of India. Many have received professional training and are holding good position. Many more are coming up.
Hailing from the Kottar diocese of Tamil Nadu, you have gone to that area with a great zeal for spreading the gospel. In your view, how well is missionary work progressing in Arunachal Pradesh as well as in the rest of India?
There is some dampening of the missionary spirit visible. I don’t blame the political situation for it. It was the laity who carried the mission of the Church here. On the other side, we are trying to institutionalize the Church. There is a tendency to settle down to institutions instead of going to villages and spending time with the people to catechize them. We have to get down to the level of the people and instruct them in the faith. I must admit sincerely that, that is on the wane.
How important a role does the laity play in the Church there?
I would say to some extent the laity have taken the back seat. The reason for it is, the priests are taking the leading role in building up the Churches. But earlier it was entirely the laity who led the Church. Now they are not given that importance they deserve in Church administration.
Christianity in Europe was very structural with a lot of institutions. It was a clerical Church, which perhaps led to its weakening. What do you think is the future of the Church as a missionary Church? What lesson has the Arunachal Pradesh Church to give to the rest of the Church?
As long as we are enthusiastic with our Charism, with our mission, we continue to flourish. If some are not so motivated inside, then, what can we do? We can see certain stagnation in some pockets.
In the north there is a dampening of mission activity; it may be because of the RSS or the BJP. What is happening to the mission orientation that took so many priests, religious and nuns from Kerala and Tamil Nadu there with zeal and zest? What is happening to the mission thrust of the Church?
People from Kerala and Tamil Nadu came with the intention of spreading the gospel. In the process, a tendency to be institutionalized and to get settled crept in. Earlier, the missionaries were always on the move, meeting people and spending time with them. That has decreased. There is a tendency to institutionalize the village with structures like schools, hostels and the convents. Priests are now mostly involved in administration.
You know the great example of Fr Lievens, the apostle of Chotanagpur, a pioneering Belgian priest who came to India and settled there. What did he as a missionary teach, a kind of institutional Church or some other kind of Church?
Great people like him were filled with missionary zeal for Christ, like the apostles in the early Church. Therefore, they were not dampened by difficulties. They went ahead and worked hard in spite of them. That has been the history of the Church in Arunachal.
There are some RSS people, even from Kerala, working in Arunachal Pradesh. How are they faring?
Many of them are coming through the Ramakrishna Mission. They are watching what is happening there. They are also trying to imitate the way we have been functioning, like going to villages. But I don’t think they have succeeded. Mere imitation is different from being red by the real spirit of Jesus. In fact, during the twelve years I worked here, I find their mission is not successful. The biggest Ramakrishna Mission centre has nearly five hundred acres and they receive great support from the government supporting, but they are all confined to their institutions.
In India, fundamentalism of all kinds, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, are on the rise. Why is it happening? What antidote would you suggest for it?
Actually, we don’t need to defend our faith. If we are convinced of our vocation and our mission, the Lord will do the rest. Jesus need not be protected and we don’t have to make any effort to defend Jesus. If he wanted to be defended, He would not have said on the cross, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ The fundamentalist attitude comes when you make an effort to defend Christ or Catholicism.
Pope Francis is said to be a progressive man. He seems to be a liberal and a man for the marginalized, the poor, the drown trodden and the migrants. What does he tell the Indian Church?
The Pope said, ‘Let us go to the peripheries.’ He wants to push the mission of Christ forward without getting bogged down in institutions. Let us go to the people where they are. The Church will be there, not in our structures. That is exactly what Pope Francis is telling us. We need to take it very seriously. We may have institutions to accommodate people who had education, but we cannot oversee the great command of Jesus, the missionary mandate.
By episcopal ordination you are becoming a member in the CBCI, which is a policy making body that foresees what is going to happen in India. The traditional Churches in Goa and in Kerala are getting weakened. What is the future of the Church in India?
The future of the Church is getting back to Jesus. Probably, we need the faith of Christ and ask for His Spirit more and more. I am not aiming at direct preaching. If we are guided by Holy Spirit, we will be able to go ahead. The CBCI as a body needs to protect the Church. But as an individual bishop and an individual diocese, we need to get back to the Lord.
What is in the life of Jesus that challenges you most?
It is His life itself. He never lived for Himself, only for others. He built his very personality with it. I always ask the Lord, ‘Lord ll me with your Spirit and may Your Spirit continue to accompany me, not only today. This has to be my prayer, Lord make me a holy priest and if it be your will, a martyred missionary. I am sure as long as the Lord is with us, He will continue to lead us forward undaunted.
Why do you pray?
Prayer is the only strength I have. I need to get re-energized, because I am at the service of Christ. Therefore, unless He gives me the strength to do what He wants of me, I’ll fail.
Prayer is going deep into oneself. Where do you find your God?
I find my God not only in prayer, but also in my mission, in my work and in my people. While I remain in contact with them, believe it or not, these people have taught me much about God. They also begin to recognize the presence of Jesus. When they say about the presence of God, they are able to identify Jesus in you.
Tell me something about your family?
My father and mother are no more. We are seven children; four girls and three boys. One of my sisters is a nun.
Did you go for higher studies?
No, I didn’t go for any higher studies.
Have you no regret about that?
No, I am a religious. I just did whatever my congregation asked me to do.
Why did you opt to be a Salesian?
I myself don’t know the answer for that. In postulancy, we began with nine members, three from Tamil Nadu and six from Kerala. For one reason or the other, all the rest left before entering into the Novitiate. And in fact, I too had thought of leaving. But then I remained. The Lord has been guiding me till today. I was taken to Shillong, and it was so cold there. I told the director, ‘Father, I can’t live here. It is too cold and I will not be able to survive.’ Then he said, ‘How will you go? you know only Tamil, you don’t even know English or Hindi. You have to travel for five or six days. If anything happens, who will be responsible? Therefore, please hold on, next month one Father is going for holidays. We will send you with him. After a month I went and asked my director, ‘Now, I am ready. You told me after a month you will send me with a Father.” Then he said, ‘He is having some problem in his parish so is not able to go for holidays.’ In the meanwhile, I was already introduced to a school and I had taken interest in studies. Then I forgot about leaving. I wonder how the Lord has been directing me although it may look easy when we look back.
You are a man in the sixties who might have gone through a lot of frustrations, failures, disease and agonies. How did you take them?
I won’t say that I had too much of frustration disease and agonies, but in the communities, we inevitably have certain problems with colleagues. But I always knew that, after all, our life is very short, I may have to bear up with a person only for two or three years and so it didn’t really affect me much. I was able to adjust by God’s grace.
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