As a ‘Church Leader’ I was primarily exercising my role as the shepherd of the flock of Catholics entrusted to me. I have tried:

• To keep them united.

• To improve the quality of their Christian faith.

• To make them self-reliant/ feel proud of their identity.

• To give them faith formation especially to the children and youth.

• To catechize them/make them feel their belongingness to the Catholic Church and to Christ.

• To Strengthen them materially by providing jobs, to earn their livelihood. Building houses for them.

• To educate the children at a minimum cost, giving scholarships and concessions…..

• To promote love for the word of God and its proclamation.

In spite of the fact that the majority of my faithful are of the Latin tradition, I could foster an inclusive attitude among them, following an inclusive and tolerant liturgical disposition. We practiced bi-ritual liturgy to respect the fundamental right of all in divine worship and liturgical practices but obtaining due permission from the ecclesiastical authority.

My priority was to bring people together, prepare them for a witness of life, living in fraternal harmony in the midst of a hostile, intolerant non-Christian society.

My church leadership did not limit itself to the Catholic community. Its influence extends to those outside, non-Catholics and non-Christians. The vast majority of the beneficiaries of the service of the Diocese are non-Christians.

As part of my efforts to consolidate the pastoral initiatives of my predecessor, I could initiate giving to some external signs of the existence of a small Catholic community and their services, by building small prayer halls in mission stations, where people can come to pray and conduct prayer sessions and listen to the Word of God.

For a Church leader, achievement, if any, is never personal. I believe if there are any achievement; it cannot but be a collective achievement. I cannot and I will not claim any achievement as my own. I feel the satisfaction of having played my humble role in fulfilling a common task/project. All that has been realized has to be considered the fruits of collective effort of the priests, religious, faithful together with me and the many people of good will. Above all, if I may say so: “the Church leaders” life has meaning only to the extent that he gives himself, spends himself for others. He is at the receiving end from the one and unique ‘Gratuitous Giver’. In God I place my trust for his glory and for the welfare of the people, I worked and he made me an instrument for his works.

It is true that our diocese is situated in U.P. which is the heartland of Hindu religion, with its important sanctuaries like Kashi Ayodhya, Mathura, (Triveni) Prayag Raj etc. It is the land of the sages and Gurus; of the holy rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Sarayu etc. The people of this place are deep rooted in Hindu belief, traditions and culture. Radical movements among the Hindu Brethren coupled with political power, seem to head towards violence, intolerance, insecurity, injustice and disharmony in the society. Majoritarian religious radicalism will shake the foundations of the constitutional social-secular fabric of the nation. We are experiencing this risk in many instances of the work we are doing for the society. For the past four decades, the diocese has given great contributions to the society in the field of education, social development, health services etc. irrespective of caste and creed. We are happy that so far, all our services for the welfare of the people have found acceptance and appreciation from the public. We concentrate on awareness creation, empowerment of the marginalized, promotion of sustainable and inclusive development. But recent changes in the socio-political and religious scenario are disturbing the social relationships, peace and serenity in the fields of our services. We have not been keen on religious conversion, but we aimed at conversion of heart, that our service might contribute to the building up of the Kingdom of God in which all are children of the Heavenly Father, members of the same family of God’s children living in peace and harmony, having rights and duties. Aggressive and intolerant ‘Hindutva’ will do damage to the pluralistic society. Hence our conviction is that a developed and civilized people cannot but promote the minimum value of ‘Manavtha’- humanness/humanity.

In my opinion the phenomena of rightist extremism and extreme fundamentalism in religious views and attitudes have always existed in the world. At the same time there is the growing tendencies of unrestricted extreme liberalism, relativism in religious views and attitudes. I am tempted to say that these are products of one another. A certain process of dialectics seems to be at play. Wherever and whenever there come up liberalism, relativism and religious indifferentism etc. the contra movements powerfully spring up too. It is a matter of consolation and hope that there always exists a portion of the society who try to keep a balance and follow via media.

I think missionary activities are still possible in North India, but depends how one understands it from true Gospel perspectives. Missionary has to prepare the grounds for the coming of God’s reign here on earth. Jesus’ way of Evangelization is still relevant. God’s will and His glory is human salvation and liberation. Holy Father Pope Francis has said that evangelization is not to be understood as proselytism, faith has to grow by attraction. What he means is that the witnessing value of our lives is to be upheld to make mission possible even today. For this, I would also mention the ‘conditio sine qua non’ is the ‘radical personal conversion’ of the missionary. Personal integrity, truthfulness, compassion, simplicity, honesty, devotion etc. are values that would attract many even today.

Having lived for more than 75 years, what I have to say to the world? In fact not very much!

Love for truth and standing
for justice without
compromising the law of true love,

I am very happy and grateful to have been blessed with the gift of life. When I look back into the journey of my life so far, I do experience a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. The strongest feeling is that of having been cared for, accompanied and carried by the invisible power of God in whom I believe. I am humbly proud of my faith in God, in Jesus Christ. I am proud of the simple but unshakable faith of my parents who are still attracting my admiration. They inspired me to face life and its challenges with patience and determination; but never with retaliation and violence.

Life is a struggle to attain a goal. The nature of your struggle and the attitudes you foster will mostly depend upon the nature of the goal you have set. I too had my struggles with myself and the expectations set on me. My faith, my human, religious moral and spiritual formation helped to a great extent. Although in my life, tasks were assigned to me and I learned to assume the responsibilities, I did not stop dreaming about what more could be done for the future of that task.

Life becomes beautiful and meaningful, if it is lived and spent for others. Even if you experience that you are left alone many times, your simplicity, humility, honesty and unselfish motivations will bring you not only inner strength and satisfaction but also real and sincere helping hands. Integrity of your person, love for truth and standing for justice without compromising the law of true love, will lead you to genuine freedom.

In fact, many might rightfully say that I had a privileged life as priest religious and bishop in the Catholic Church. To tell you the truth, my struggle was to live a life of a simple Christian, a simple follower of Christ, in spite of my many limitations. It is not myself, but others who have the right to judge my actions. Finally, it will be God who will judge me in love and justice.

I agree in a certain sense. I would say every lay person, follower of Christ, can be considered to be a monk of inner monasticism, according to the Gospel’s demand. That kind of life is not synonymous with the vowed, professed monastic religious life. The spiritual life of a lay person in the Catholic Church is not to be separated from the Gospel way of following Christ radically. Each way of following Christ and his Gospel is sublime and radical in its own level.

Interesting question! Life has taught me that:

•Many things in life are beyond your control and calculations.

•The more you are aware of your limitedness, the more you become humble but confident in the light of your faith.

•Human life becomes meaningful, when lived for others.

•The Gospel of Christ has been the light for my path.

•It was a challenging journey.

•It taught me to live a meaningful life and accomplish my ministry following that road map.

•The Gospels gave me energy to dream high on the path of humble service.

•The Gospel way I understood as the unique way for all human beings to follow. To make that way known was my mission – God’s glory – man’s salvation.

What are your regrets and lessons from failures?

I regret:

• that many good things could not be done.

• The moments of disappointments.

• The strained relationships in my journey. I regret that I could not make my environment still more joyful, peaceful, lovable etc.

• I learned that quite often my thoughts are not the way others think, hence more listening is a need.

In all that I undertook, as part of my ministry, this motto of mine was a constant norm and reminder. To liberate humans from every kind of slavery and bondage was in my humble thought, the way to glorify God and the means to let God’s kingdom come. I found it pushing me forward in the concrete life situation of my people. Many things that I promoted were meant for this total liberation of the persons in distress. In this domain I have a lot of satisfaction: caring for the orphans, homeless, disabled, children in need, sick and suffering oppressed and marginalized. All that brought me joy. I felt it as relevant to the witnessing Gospel values. Small steps could be made towards that.

I am aware that people remember our good work only till our next mistake. So, I try never to feel proud on appreciation and never feel depressed on criticism. Just keep doing your best.

In my journey of life, I am fascinated by the unique experiences of a chain of friendship which took me beyond the boundaries of blood relationship to the domain of true love, fidelity, mutual trust and sincere friendship and sustained my life and ministry in a wonderful way.