Bp Sebastian Pozholiparambil, Hosur
What motto have you in mind?
“A Loving Service, Trusting in Divine Providence.”
Why have you preferred it?
The diocese of Hosur is verily a gift of Divine Providence. Since thirty-three years we have been trying to provide pastoral care to the Chennai Syro-Malabar Catholics. The Syrian faithful of Chennai are aware of the difficulties involved in obtaining it. We decided to recite one lakh Rosaries from 1st May to 18th October for that intention. And on 10th October Hosur diocese got established by Divine Providence.
Would you describe the new diocese for the benefit of our readers?
The borders or even the headquarters of the diocese is not yet decided. I have visited all the five neighbouring Latin dioceses, Dharmapuri, Chengalpattu, Madras Mylapore, Vellore and Pondicherry. I found the bishops and archbishops of the area very welcoming. Hosur is in Dharmapuri diocese. As the mission centres and institutions are located in Chennai, it is impractical to have the head quarters in Hosur.
When the Syrian Catholic communities are mainly living in Chennai and Madras-Mylapore, why is the headquarters of the diocese located at the Tamilnadu-Karnataka border?
I do not know exactly why Hosur was chosen. May be they are looking at the possibility of another diocese in Chennai.
How many Syro-Malabar Catholics does Hosur have?
Actually we have gone only to Madras-Mylapore area in search of Syro-Malabar Catholics. We have identified five thousand families in that area. Many of them are active members of their respective Latin parishes.
How would you describe your experience as the pastor-in-charge of the Syro-Malabarians of Chennai Archdiocese?
We need to give special care to our migrants living anywhere in the world. For example, in Vellore around 800 lay Catholics of the Syro-Malabar Church were finding themselves at a loss because of the lack of proper pastoral care. There are many doctors and nurses among them. After we started Holy Mass and catechism for them, they are enthusiastically getting involved in Church activities.
Bp Jobby, you are now entrusted with a new diocese that has a vast geographical area. What would be your pastoral priority?
As person in-charge of Chennai mission, I worked there from 1997 to 2006. As a deputy, I had a tough time grappling with many problems. My priority in the diocese will be more pastoral than structural or institutional.
Since you already know the people, will you be straight away giving focus to their spiritual needs?
The migrants of Syro-Malabar Catholics are not fully aware of our Church tradition and the values we cherish. The urban youth who are attracted to modern lifestyle usually undervalue our traditional ways of Christian living. Family prayer is a case in point. We may have to introduce them to the practice of reciting the Rosary daily. One family which I thus introduced to the Rosary came to me after a couple of years and said, “Father, from the day you came to my house we have unfailingly recited the Rosary every day. It changed our family life a lot for the better.” This kind of faith should be strengthened. For that we need to pay home visits to our people.
Were they not getting pastoral care under the Chennai Archdiocese?
They do not have the kind of personalised approach that our priests use. That makes a big difference. That is not to say they do not care for the people. But I believe there is a difference in our approach, which is very much personal.
Don’t you think that the consumer culture is entering into the lives of the ordinary Catholic? How do you see that issue?
Yeah, consumerism is definitely affecting the ordinary life of people there, which make our presence and witness all the more relevant. We should be with them to provide the right motivations in life.
You spoke about the Syro-Malabar culture; how is it different from the rest?
Each culture has its own individuality. Their lifestyle is very different from ours. Other rites and cultures also provide good service to the people of God. But Syro-Malabar Catholics are rooted in their own tradition, which they should follow. Sometimes youngsters are not aware of the differences.
You were also trained in Europe, where the Church is showing signs of dying. Convents are closing down, churches are becoming empty, even big Cathedrals are empty. Is it because of the lack of pastoral care that such a tragedy is happening to Europe?
I think lack of pastoral care is the real problem. In the European Churches, pastors administer people in a quite different way. Their involvement with the people is much less. Our priests usually keep in touch with families through periodic visits. Many of our Syro-Malabar faithful are active in Latin dioceses. It will be difficult for them to come out from the Latin parishes to our new dioceses.
Do you think some sort of a numbing of the faith as happened in the West may also make its way into the Syro-Malabar Church?
If we don’t keep in touch with the people, the same situation will happen in Kerala and in the Syro-Malabar Church as a whole.
Convents are becoming the first casualty of the crisis facing the Church. There is a drastic reduction in vocations to convent life. This is a repetition of the European pattern. Does it not call for a different way of being the Church?
Yeah, that is what I was trying to say. Convents get no vocations, because girls are also looking for an adventurous life, which they cannot find in the convent. There is no heroism in the kind of life Sisters are living.
Youths like real challenges and risk taking, which religious life or convent life is distancing itself from. Are you saying it is affecting seriously religious life as a whole?
Yes, that is the point. The same is true of priests too.
Why is it happening?
Easy going religious life is not enthusing the youngsters. The lifestyle of ordinary people, priests, religious, and brothers are changing. There is a general absence of real challenge and risk.
Your native diocese Irinjalakuda has big retreat centres. Are they in your opinion catering to serious spirituality, which people need today, or to some shallow piety of Protestant Pentecostal nature?
Some charismatic retreat centres are catering actually to shallow spirituality, but, at the same time, they are positively helping to bring about a spiritual awakening. These retreat centres bring people to the path of piety, through which they have to be led deeper into spirituality.
Is that happening?
It is not happening.
You are around 60 years old now. In your many years of priesthood, you have lived in different places. What is it in the life of Christ that is so dear and so challenging to you?
It is His personal care and attention. When I go to a family, it is not I, but Jesus who is visiting it. He was going around, crying with the people, laughing with them. Now-a-days, each family is going through many problems, which they can’t divulge. If we are sincere and prayerful, with us Jesus will enter into these families. I want to imitate Jesus, who provided spiritual support.
What is spirituality for you?
Just feeling the presence of God is my spirituality.
What is prayer for you?
I spend at least one hour a day in front of Blessed Sacrament. I speak and God responds. God will take up the responsibility for my life.
What for do you pray?
I just sit before the Lord feeling His presence, that’s all.
Tell me something about yourself and your family?
My parish is Pulloor. I have my mother, two brothers, and four sisters. My father and one of my sisters have passed away. The third sister, Sr Jaya, belongs to the Angamaly Province of the CMC congregation and teaches in Bharath Matha College.
What about your studies?
I had my studies in philosophy and theology in Vadavathoor semianry. I did my licentiate in ecumenism in the Angelicum University in Rome.
What were your earlier postings in the diocese?
I was Vice Rector and later Rector in the minor seminary of Irinjalakuda diocese. I served as parish priest in Aloor, Cheloor, Kaipamangalam, Parapooaur, Irinjalakuda Cathedral and Maledoor before becoming chaplain in Madras. I also served as the Finance Officer and the Vicar General of Irinjalakuda diocese.
