Jesuit Father P D Mathew, the first Catholic priest to become a lawyer in India, has recently celebrated the golden jubilee of his religious life as a Jesuit. His is an inspiring story of empowering thousands of our citizens through his mission of legal aid.
Father Mathew says a short stay with a group of bonded labourers in early 1960s made a drastic change in his life. During his training to become a Jesuit priest, his superiors had asked him to study chemistry so that he could become a teacher in their college in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat.
But the stay with the tribals in the Bharuch district of Gujarat during 1962-1965, helped him realize the way they were oppressed by powerful people. “Their cries for human rights and justice challenged me as a priest to respond to them in an effective way,” the lawyer priest recalled.
According to him, becoming a lawyer as “a vocation with his choice vocation” where his main mission was to listen to the plight of the simple and suffering people.
“It was in that situation that I first thought of studying law in order to liberate them from the bonded system prevalent at that time in Gujarat. My later studies in social work at the M S University, Baroda, (passed with distinction and gold medal) also inspired me to take up the legal profession as a means of liberating the oppressed people.”
Father Mathew says not all supported his idea of becoming a lawyer. His Jesuit superiors and companions considered law as a “lier’s profession” of those exploiting the poor litigants, who helplessly seek justice through courts. “As a result, no priest in India ever thought of studying civil laws to take up the legal profession as a mission to serve the poor,” he explained. “Consequently I struggled a lot to get permission from my superiors to acquire a degree in law. After a year-long dialogue with my superiors… I got the LL.B. degree with distinction and gold medal which prompted the university authorities to ask me to continue my law studies to take an LL.M. degree and to teach in the Law Faculty of the University.”
Indian archbishop blesses Catholic Covid-19 centre
The first Catholic medical facility in India fully equipped to serve Covid-19 patients has been inaugu-rated in Bengaluru in Karnataka State.
The Covid care centre at St John’s Medical College, which has 48 isolation beds, a 24-bed intensive treat-ment unit (ITU) and a 24-bed intensive care unit (ICU), was blessed and inaugurated by Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore on Aug. 17.
“The Church is always at the fore-front to help the poor and the needy, whether in the education or health fields, and it is an opportunity to give our selfless service to our society and nation,” Archbishop Machado told UCA News.
“Our hospital has taken a leading step to provide healthcare to people during these crucial times. It is a first in the country and I salute and thank people who made this possible.”
He said the medical college has given free treatment worth over 5 million rupees (US$67,000) in the last five months in tackling pandemic cases.
By the end of July, it had screened more than 5,000 fever patients, 2,000 patients in the emergency department, treated more than 600 patients on the wards and taken care of some 500 critically ill patients in the ICU.
Syro-Malabar Synod pledges to help Covid-19 poor
The Syro-Malabar Church ended its 28th Synod calling upon its people to help the nation increase its productivity and encourage agricultural and industrial activities.
As many as 61 bishops from around the world attended the August 19-21 Synod held through videoconference because of the health regulations to control the coronavirus pandemic. The second Synod of the year Synod addressed the Church’s commitment to the poor at time of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Syro-Malabar Church, the larger of India’s two Oriental Catholic rites, has spent some US$ 7.3 million to help the poor since the country imposed a nationwide lockdown on the midnight of March 24.
The bishops urged their faithful to cooperate with the authorities to help society’s poorest, irrespective of caste or creed. The Synod’s first session was held on January 7 to 15 at Mount Thomas, the Church’s headquarters at Kakkanad, a Kochi suburb. The Church has total 64 bishops heading dioceses all over the world.
When Emperor Akbar encouraged Christian art
Portuguese India during the 16th century – that is, the colonial enclaves of Goa, Bassein, Cochin and the Pearl Fishery Coast – was blessed with the presence of the Jesuits. They built monumental churches, colleges and residences.
The Portuguese Jesuits lavishly decorated these buildings with paintings, statues and church furnishings, and they commissioned numerous artists, painters, builders and sculptors.
Indeed, the Jesuit Church was designed to represent a particular image of Catholicism in the East: a triumphant Church.
Most of these artists were Hindus. They created ivory and wooden statues and furnishings in a subtle hybrid style, merging the late Renaissance influence of Europe and elements of local Hindu temple art.
While the pictures of Mary, the saints and the angels were derived from Italian and Iberian originals, most of them were usually adapted to Indian sensibilities.
One example of such hybrid art can be found in the courts of the great Moghuls – Akbar, Jehangir and Shah Jehan. They were the result of the early Jesuit missions to the Moghul court in Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra.
Christian preachers beaten for praying for sick in Jharkhand
Two members of a neo-Christian sect were allegedly beaten a Hindu radical group when they prayed over a sick person in a village near Chatra town in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, Persecution Relief reported August 26.
One Lakhan, a member of the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS), on August 22 took preachers Sanjeet and Siddharth to Kharik, a village around 7 km from Chatra, to pray for his relative Ramdev, who has been sick for one and half years.
When the two missionaries were praying for Ramdev and his family, a group of Bajrang Dal members came 11 am and took them out.
The Hindu radicals then started beating the two Christian preachers with sticks and kicked them.
Sanjeet was injured in his head, back, hands, and legs. Siddharth’s left hand and thigh too sustained injuries. Sanjeet now has difficulty in hearing.
Catholic lawyers’ forum calls for Supreme Court’s self-examination
A forum for Catholic nuns, brothers and priests practicing as lawyers says time has come for the self-examination of the Supreme Court of India. “It is the right time for the Apex Court for its self-exa-mination,” the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests (NLFRP) stated on August 22 after observing that certain moves of the apex court have evoked bar associations across India to organize protests and demonstrations.
The forum says it was disturbed by the court’s full bench on August 20 holding Prashant Bhushan, a noted lawyer, guilty of criminal contempt of court for two tweets.
Bhushan was drawn into the case for the tweets dated on July 27 and 29 on Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and the Supreme Court. One tweet was about a photograph of Justice Bobde astride a bike and another on how posterity would perceive the role played by the apex court in the past six years.
On August 14, the apex court found the tweets offensive and scandalizing the court. Bhushan said the tweets embodied his bona fide belief and that it would be contemptuous on his part to apologize for something he believes in. He also said he would cheerfully submit to whatever punishment the court imposed on him.
The forum for Catholic religious and priests termed as “unfortunate” that the court finding the tweets undermining “the dignity and authority of the institution of the Supreme Court of India and the Chief Justice of India and directly affronts the majesty of law.”
The forum has declared its solidarity to Bhushan as it finds him not just an individual but the “voice of millions of people and an icon of Right to Expression of our times.”
Catholic priest revolutionizes Maharashtra district’s healthcare scenario
A 106-year-old dilapidated hospital has become a state-of-the-art healthcare facility in Maharashtra, thanks to a Catholic priest.
Giving a new lease of life to the Morarji Gokaldas Rural Hospital in Mahabaleshwar is among several success stories of Father Tomy Kariyilakulam, who has revolutionized the healthcare scenario of Satara district after he entered the western Indian state a quarter century ago.
“This could be a role model for India to improve public health delivery, without privatization or corporatization,” the 54-year-old priest, popularly called Father Tomy, told Matters India.
The member of the Kerala-based Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament says he draws on “unique collaboration” among the state government, Red Cross of India and corporate houses to improve a few hospitals and nearly 80 public health centers in the district.
The Mahabaleshwar hospital, a government enterprise, boasts of a hoary past as its foundation stone was laid in 1914 by Lord Thomas Willingdon, the then governor of Bombay. It was originally meant for the use of locals and British tourists.
Despite its hoary past, the hospital — sprawled on an 11-acre forest land adjacent to the Mahabaleshwar market — was a decript structure that resembled “a ghost house” when the Catholic priest started the renovation works at the invitation of the Maharashtra government.
Doctor Amrish Vaidya of Mumbai, whose family has a 100-year-old association with Mahabaleshwar, thanks the Catholic priest for converting “a very basic rural” healthcare institution into a well-equipped facility. “It is now ready for the next level of care for the local population,” he said at the soft launch of renovated hospital on May 8.
Catholic Priest got award in the short film screenwriting
Priest Fr. Jose Puthussery of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam–Angamaly received the award in the short film screenwriting competition organized by the Kerala Chalachithra Academy on the problems faced by Malayalees all over the world in connection with the lock down during the Corona period.
During this Kovid period, the Short Film Screenwriting Competition was another initiative of the Kerala Chalachithra Academy. The competition was organized with the cultural mission of promoting the creative expressions of the artists during the lockdown period and documenting the artistic response of the filmmakers of Kerala to this difficult time. The screenplay is based on the theme ‘Isolation and Survival’.
Out of the 737 screenplays sent, one of the ten screenplays selected is by Fr. Jose Puthussery. He is at present abroad for strides.
Covid management: Mizoram sets new example
A small state in India’s troubled northeast has managed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic much better than some larger states with more resources.
Mizoram is tucked away between Myanmar and Bangladesh, about 1,500 miles from New Delhi. It registered its first case on March 24—the day on which the country went into nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
Since then, the number of cases in Mizoram rose to 918 as of Aug. 24, but there have been no deaths.
The number of Covid-19 cases in India was reported at 3.1 million on August 24, with 57,542 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, United States. India is third after the United States and Brazil.
The government of the state, led by Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga, decided to take immediate action as the pandemic started. A former militant leader, he enlisted the help of community organizations such as the Central Young Mizo Association and church leaders. About 85 percent of the state’s population is Christian and such organizations play an important role.
Every village and locality in urban areas has a local task force to deal with Covid-19. They coordinate with district-level teams, who in turn report to a state-level team.
On August 9, when a paramilitary officer from the Chaltlang Lily Veng area of Aizawl tested positive for Covid-19, the local task force took charge. They declared a lockdown in the locality. Volunteers managed to trace 136 people who had met the officer. Thirteen of them tested positive.
“The state utilized the time of the lockdown in coordinating effectively among various departments, such as health, home, and disaster management, and the community organizations,” said Priscilla C. Ngaihte, an adviser with Public Health Foundation of India. “They also prioritized strengthening their health infrastructure over other things.”
Indian bishops to address mental health of youth
The National Youth Commission of the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ of India has decided to address the mental wellbeing of young people amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In these times of uncertainty, the commission is committed to paying attention to the psychological and mental wellbeing of young people, said its executive secretary Father Chetan Machado.
The Delhi diocesan priest issued a press note on August 23 after holding the annual consultative meeting (virtual) of national youth leaders of various Catholic Youth Movements in India.
The participants included two young representatives from youth movements such as the Indian Catholic Youth Movement, Young Catholic Students/Young Student Movement, Youth United for Christ, Salesian Youth Movement, Jesus Youth, St. Vincent De Paul Society and Focolare along with the advisory board of the commission and special invitees.
The annual meeting deliberated on the present a scenario of youth ministry, exchange of ideas and needs of young people. The youth commission plans to collaborate with other youth movements in India after discussion.
NYC is the umbrella body for all Catholic youth activities in the country.