Seventh of the eight children of Victor and Daisy Noronha, Ronnie was born at Madanapalli (A.P.) on 9.4.1940 (His parents happened to be there then); he had his early education in Tamilnadu and Kerala. His family then moved to their hometown, Mangalore, where he continued his education at St Aloysius College. His father was a PWD engineer, constantly liable to transfer. He died when Ronnie was only five, and so he had very little memory of his father. But he had a wonderful mother, who through hard work brought up the children, seeing that they had a good education, a happy home and a religious atmosphere with daily Mass, Rosary etc. Though Ronnie was not good at games, he was good at studies and had a double promotion. “Some of our family wanted me to get into the administrative services. Hence the addition of Prabhu to my Noronha surname), but God decided otherwise; he quietly called me to the Society.” One of his sisters became a nun.
After his Intermediate, Ronnie joined the novitiate at Christ Hall, Calicut, one of the large batch of 13. Fr Apoline D’Souza was their novice master. Theirs was the first batch to do the Juniorate in the newly opened Mount St Joseph, Bangalore. He had his year of regency at St Louis Boarding House on Brigade Road where the Commerce College now stands. Thereafter he went for his PG studies at Dharwad. Admission took some time, as he did not have any undergraduate studies except the Shembaganur Licentiate certificate. Eventually they accepted him, and at the end of the year they officially recognized our Philosophy course as equivalent to BA, thanks to the excellent performance of the first batch. Hence his companions jumped to the PG classes, without completing their graduation. Dharwad offered him plenty of opportunities for service both at the university and at the parish.
First asked to study German in view of doing Theology at Frankfurt, Fr Ronnie began to study the language. After a month of classes, he was given to understand that there was no seat, and so he had to find his Frankfurt somewhere nearer, viz. at DNC, Pune. He found it a blessing in disguise, for here he could help Fr Ted Bowling with the Know Christ Letters at the IHS Centre. His great dream was realized when he was ordained a priest at St Aloysius College on 23 February 1970.
Fr Ronnie was entrusted with positions of responsibility right from the very beginning of his active ministry. He was supposed to specialize in Indian Philosophy; hence during his first assignment after Ordination, as Director of Dhyanashrama, he also registered for his doctorate studies. (By the way, already in the Juniorate the Rector, Fr J.C. Pereira, was encouraging the Juniors to learn Sanskrit). But very soon, the Superiors thought better of it, and asked him to study Spanish to specialize in Ignatian Spirituality in Spain. When he was grappling with the first verbs of Spanish, Fr Tony D’Mello invited him to join the first batch of Sadhana, assuring him that that would give enough of Spirituality. Sadhana too proved a great blessing for Fr Ronnie. That itself was considered as part of his tertianship, to be supplemented with a Month Retreat.
Just at that time, the Province acquired Ashirvad, and the idea of making him a novice master was given up, and he was put in Ashirvad. “We started from scratch; I had no experience, and did not know what to do there. It was a hard beginning; progress was slow. There was no publicity regarding whatever we did. Many will not know that within a couple of years there was strong dissatisfaction in some quarters about what was happening in Ashirvad, and Fr Provincial had to constitute a committee to look into the allegations of immaturity and incompetence of the director and the failure of the new venture upon which the Province had invested a lot of money. The ASCO (Ashirvad Commission) was a great blessing; the senior Jesuits on the Commission interviewed priests and sisters and lay people and non-Christians, and praise God, the Project Ashirvad and its director came out in flying colours. I enjoyed my days at Ashirvad, particularly the work of Inter-religious Dialogue.”
Fr Ronnie was made the director of Ashirvad along with being the director of Dhyanashrama (old location), with residence in the former place, where he made his Final Profession on 2 Feb 1976. He was appointed Rector of SAC Mangalore in 1980. From 1986 onwards he was successively Superior-Director of FRH, Mangalore, Rector of Mount St Joseph, Bangalore, Rector of St Joseph’s College, Bangalore, after which he became the Provincial till 2004. Then he was once again the Superior-Director of Ashirvad, and again of FRH. In 2012 at the request of the Archbishop of Bangalore he was given the heavy responsibility as the PRO of the Karnataka Regional Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Secretary of the Karnataka United Christian Forum for Human Rights which he was mainly instrumental in founding and to which he gave himself wholeheartedly till the very end. He was the soul, so to say, of the inter-religious movement in Bangalore.
What he remembered especially of his term as the Rector of SAC was the role he was privileged to play in the opening of the St Aloysius Boys’ Home, the St Aloysius Technical School, and the revival of Basic Theology and value education in the College. (Down Memory Lane) When he was the Rector of MSJ, while he helped out in the novitiate and in the retreat work, the greater part of his time was given to the small Kalena Agrahara parish, the starting of the primary school and the technical school, and indirectly working in the villages around. Before he could finish his term at MSJ, he was shifted in 1992 to SJC and “the one dominant thing in my mind was the reorganization of the campus. Planning occupied a lot of my time, while I resumed helping in the inter-religious work at Ashirvad, I enjoyed teaching theology in the colleges. The Principals were very co-operative with me.” (DML)
Speaking of his term as Provincial, he has this to share: “I enjoyed being Provincial. I got more co-operation than I thought I would get. My aim was that every individual must feel affirmed, our communities must be even more joyful, our missions must be strengthened, and irrespective of our linguistic background we must all feel at home in our Province…. As I look back over the years, my dominant thought is how fortunate I have been and my dominant feeling is one of gratitude, and that much is expected from those to whom much is given.”
Fr Ronnie spread happiness wherever he went. After each Visitation, he wrote a personal letter to each member of the community, highlighting the good in him, and suggesting ways to make it even better. He befriended everyone, making no distinctions. He had, however, a special corner in his heart for the weak, the wounded and the sick. He kept no grudge. He had no craving for power, and when offices were given to him, they rested gently on his shoulders. He could still be the same simple person. Air travel was very rare. He generally travelled by the semi-luxury bus. Once when the boy booked a ticket for him by a luxury bus, he had it changed for a semi-luxury one. The Superiors always found him docile, ready to be sent anywhere at any time, for any mission. It’s true, he too had his share of criticism, which sometimes could be pretty harsh and unkindly besides being unfair and unmerited; but he bore it all with a smile of tolerance on his face and forgiveness in his heart. Though at times he too could be impulsive and irritable, yet he was quick to apologize and make amends.
Of the various tasks entrusted to Fr Ronnie Prabhu, though he put his heart and soul in whatever he did, the one that was closest to his heart was inter-religious dialogue. Made the director of the newly started institute for non-institutional apostolates, he launched into a new venture – promoting harmony among religions. The personal charisma of Fr Ronnie animated and sustained the inter-religious harmony movement with its headquarters at Ashirvad, Bangalore. “Today it has come to be known as one of the best paradigms of communal harmony in the country. One could well describe the impact of Fr Ronnie on hundreds of people in words like “He touched me, and I have grown.” Thus Ashirvad will remain for decades to come a monument to the memory of a man who founded it and a blessing to his admirers. Having experienced Ronnie’s cordial friendship or unconditional acceptance, they are primed to pass on the same to their fellow human beings, avers his successor at Ashirvad, Fr Pradeep.
Some of his friends found Ronnie a happy-go-lucky ecclesiastic lacking depth in his convictions and spirituality. Only his close friends, says Fr Pradeep, discerned his deep faith concealed behind a light-hearted exterior. In the late 90’s, Ronnie’s doctors had found that his heartbeat was irregular and that he needed a pace-maker. Fitted with one, Ronnie wrote in his journal, “I have been given a pacemaker so that I can keep pace with my Maker.” That in a way sums up his spirituality.
Death came to Fr Ronnie not like a thief unannounced, but like a gentle hand tapping on his shoulder, telling him, ‘That’s enough, good and faithful servant; come to enjoy the reward the loving Father has prepared for you.’ Without his knowledge the abdominal cancer had spread even the other organs. Fr Ronnie took the news of the diagnosis so calmly. He was expressing his gratitude for every little act of kindness shown to him, calling himself `a pampered child of God’, carrying on with his usual duties almost till the end. On the eve of his death, he could tell his Provincial in all serenity and sincerity that he was fully ready to meet his Creator. On 18 August 2015 at St Philomena’s Hospital, Bangalore at the time of sunset his soul winged its flight to heaven. Given the good relations he had built up with people of all faiths and of no faith, it was no wonder that a large concourse of over 3000 of his admirers, collaborators, and beneficiaries apart from his friends and confreres, were there to bid him goodbye at St Joseph’s Boys’ High School. An enviable end indeed!
He has not written many books nor left behind buildings of brick and mortar, but surely he has tried to build up persons of flesh and blood wherever he went. What he has left behind are the pleasant memories, his joyful witness to the Gospel, and the striking example of resignedly accepting the will of God in his last illness. As his close friend Dr Thimmappa Hegde testified at the memorial service, ‘Ronnie has helped many to come to God and in his last illness showed how the sufferings of the body need not dim the luminosity of the spirit.’
- by Fr Richard Sequeira, SJ
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