Journey of a Missionary Priest //
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| Fr. George Pallivathukal |
Transfer from Cathedral to Ranjhi Parish
After four years of service in the Cathedral Parish at Jabalpur, I asked for a transfer to St. Thomas Church Ranjhi, a parish in the suburbs of Jabalpur. Fr. Joseph Thoyalil, the Vicar General cum parish priest of Ranjhi was due for a transfer. I suggested to the Bishop that Fr. Thoyalil could come to the Cathedral and I could take his place in Ranjhi and the Bishop agreed to my suggestion. The parishioners of the Cathedral were not happy with my transfer. Several of them went to the Bishop asking him to cancel the transfer. They did not know that I myself had asked for it. It was happy that I was appreciated by the people of the Cathedral Parish. On the 30th April 1991, I became the parish priest of St. Thomas parish, Ranjhi. I had an emotional attachment to this parish because I had my first Mass solemnly celebrated in this church on the 9th September, 1962.
Ranjhi parish, started by Fr. Antony Bax O'Praem in 1956 and consolidated by Fr.Antony Thundiyil, had a very homely atmosphere. The parish was surrounded by four Defence Establishments namely the Ordnance Factory of Khamaria (OFK), the Gun Carriage Factoy (GCF) of Jabalpur. The Vehicle Factory of Jabalpur (VFJ) and the Central Ordnance Depot (COD). The majority of the parishioners were defence employees. The parish consisted of 345 families. These included Tribels from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, Goans, Keralites, and the Hindi speeking who were mostly of Tamil origin. The original church building dedicated to St.Thomas the Apostel was built by Fr. A. Bax. Soon that church was found too small for the size of the parish. Need for a bigger church was felt. During the tenure of Fr. Joseph Thoyalil a bigger church was built through the generous contribution of the parishioners and partly through the help of of the diocese(Bishop).
Very remarkably, St. Thomas church is in the centre having on either side two religious congregations. On one side is St.Gabriel's Boys' School and Monastery and on the other side St. Josep's Girls' School and Convent. Bishop Dubbelman, the founder of the Ranjhi parish invited the St. Joseph's Sisters of Chambery in 1957 and the Montfort brothers in 1959 to educate mainly the catholic children of the parish. Unlike in many other parishes both schools had very good rapport with the parish from the very beginning and both the brothers and the Sisters would help in the pastoral needs of the parish, especially in conducting regular Sunday catechesis. Bro. Gabriel Ekka will always be remembered in the parish for organizing Sunday Catechism classes in a systematic way. Ranjhi was the only parish where Sunday Catchism was regularly conducted while in other parishes children and youth did not have the service. Many of our catholic children were studying in non catholic schools and thet did not have any chance for faith formation. To address this deficiency Sunday catechism was the only answer.
Home Visit of Priests, a Sacred Ministry.
I was teamed with Fr. Joseph Periappuram as assistant in Rajhi parish. Both of us reached Ranjhi together. We noticed that although the parish had a new, big church building participation of the faithful in Sunday Liturgy was very poor. The parish had a strength of 345 families but we found that less than 200 people participated in the Eucharistic celebration on Sundays. From experience we knew that home visit was the only way to remedy this drawback. We knew also that as shepherds of the parish, following the example of the Good Shepherd who went after the lost one leaving the 99 behind, we also needed to go after the lukewarm ones. Fr. Joseph and I started visiting families every day. He would go to one area and I to another. When we came back in the evening we should share with each other what we had seen and heard during the visit. We did not ask any one in the parish why he or she did not come to the church. We wanted to give them this message"Whether you come to the church or not we will come to you because you are ours". After two or three visits people who were not regular to the church started coming. This was their personal decision. Within six months the church was packed to capacity and people were standing outside outside participating in the celebration of the Mass because there was no place inside the new church. A priest who visits homes brings people to the church.
Fr.Joseph Periappuram remained with me for two years in Ranjhi and we shared in all areas of our parish pastoral activities. After his transfer also I continued the home visit until I was tranfered after seven years of service in Ranjhi. I knew every family and the names of every parishioner including children. I built up such a relationship with the parishioners that they would accept me as one in the family. I was there with them to share their joys and sorrows. I would visit the sick and the old people of the parish often and make them feel that they too were wanted. We used to give Holy Communion to the sick on every first Friday of the moth and they would be waiting to recieve the Eucharistic Lord. This was a practice in our parishes from the begining.
All the Assistans who worked with me were not eaqually fond of house visits. Some did others flatly refused to go visiting. One of my assistants told me that he did not want to go visiting families because he did not want to force Jesus on to the people. If people wanted Jesus they could come to him and he would speak to them about him. I told him If we seniors were to take that attitude, today we would not have so many mission stations and parishes in our diocese, the fruit of which you are enjoing today. We have walked thousands of kilometers to establish faith communities". He answered " you were all fools to do that, who told you to walk that much and build churches?" This tendency is growing in the church today. A priest needs to love his people and if he has love for the people he will be in the midst of them; he will spend himself for them. If a priest does not do this then priesthood only a means of livelihood for him. He only wants free boarding and lodging and petrol from the parish for his daily visits to his friends. Priest who give very little to the Church are the ones who usually demand far too much from the Church.//-
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ഈ ബ്ളോഗില് പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിക്കുന്ന അഭിപ്രായങ്ങളുടെ ഉത്തരവാദിത്തം അതെഴുതുന്ന വ്യക്തികള്ക്കു മാത്രമായിരിക്കും. സഭ്യമല്ലാത്ത ഭാഷയും അപകീര്ത്തിപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന പദപ്രയോഗങ്ങളും ഒഴിവാക്കുക-
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