Valerian was born at Bejai, near Kadri Kambla, Mangalore on 8.9.1929, the third child of Cyprian and Juliana D’Souza. Theirs was a devout family. Of the eight children five devoted their life to the service of God as religious: two as Jesuits (Vally and Leo) and three as Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel (Dulcine, Jeralda and Vincent). At an early age, erecting a grotto in their compound, and gathering neighbouring children, Vally would conduct prayers to our Blessed Mother; wearing vestments prepared out of a coloured saree of his mother, he would celebrate Mass for them in Latin, using the prayers he had learnt as an altar server, and repeating the sermons he had heard in the church. Thus coming events were casting their shadows before.
On completing his Intermediate at St Aloysius, he joined the Jesuit novitiate at Calicut. By nature a jovial person, he would entertain his companions with jokes, sometimes at his own expense. `Now his heaviness Valerian will propose the vote of thanks’, he would say. `If I were so intelligent, wouldn’t I have done my graduation?’ he would jokingly ask. Shalege smarana sanchike, nanage marana sanchike.
From his scholastic days, the suffering and misery of others struck a compassionate chord in his heart, and he found ways and means on Villa days and during the holidays, to trek up and down the hills of Shembag and Kurseong, to assist them, practicing what he had learnt during his Long Retreat. To better vibrate with them, he learnt the local languages – Malayalam in Calicut, Tamil in Shembag and Nepali in Kurseong.
After his Theology, and especially on returning from Rome with his doctorate in Canon Law, he found ample scope for the generosity of his heart, when the floods of 1974 rendered thousands of families along the Netravati River homeless. He set out first to provide for them a shelter, and later to build houses for their permanent stay. What began as a simple help-in-need program, became over the years a movement to empower thousands of poor and marginalized to hold their heads high. His aim was not just to build houses, but to build people and communities. Soon a number of new colonies sprang up in Faisalnagar, Veeranagar, Bajal, Shaktinagar, Pavoor, Jyotinagar … embracing people who were in need, irrespective of their caste and creed. The majority of the beneficiaries were Hindus and Muslims.
For Fr Vally the human person was an absolute, because everyone is made in God’s image and likeness, and it was this that he sought to get each and everyone, helper or helped, to recognize. Some perhaps could not understand why he lavished so much energy, time and material resources on Muslims, especially their womenfolk, and did not devote at least an equal amount of his efforts to Catholics. But weren’t these to him in the greatest need because of their socio-cultural conditions? The large numbers of these people present at his funeral and paying their respects to one they came to love and revere bear ample evidence to his empowerment of these discriminated members of society.
They had to be helped to stand on their own feet. Without education they would remain helpless and dependent. He started schools for the children of the displaced people, paying the salary of the teachers without Government aid. He built up a team of social workers to bring education to the doorstep of those who could not come to school because of social restrictions. Education was not merely teaching them to read and write, but also to learn hygiene, tailoring, gardening etc. He and his band of social workers organized seminars and Grihini Kendras, medical camps, to teach people the value of self-reliance, character formation, to build up their self-esteem, work for communal harmony, to get rid of the evil of drinking.
The genius of Fr Vally lay in this, that after he had gone, the works he had initiated would continue on their own steam, being effectively carried out by those lay persons he had trained. Adults were trained to engage in income-generating activities, children were sponsored in their education and total growth, youth were facilitated to see and respond to structures in society that would require change.
All this exacted a heavy toll on Fr Vally in terms of health, rest and comfort, but the joy of seeing people grow, become better human beings was reward enough for him. His memory in the hearts of those he loved and helped will surely go a long way to inspire them to live up to, and work for the ideals he cherished and patiently laboured to instill in them. Seeing the self-sacrifice of Fr Vally and the altruistic tone of all his efforts, others were drawn to extend a helping hand. E.g. St Anne’s Convent took up the responsibility of running the school at Jyotinagar. St Agnes Convent readily accepted the poor children from these schools and helped to integrate them with other children. Seminarians and Jesuit and other novices joyfully offered their shramadan for the cause and returned more benefited than benefiting. Such was the multiplier effect of his work.
Fr Valerian the Priest: Many knew Fr Valerian as a social worker. But he was first and foremost a priest of Christ called by God to serve Him in the poor. Though Fr Vally spent much time and energy in the service of the needy, he remained essentially a priest of God. Though quite often he could not give enough time and attention to his food and rest on account of his multifarious activities, he never sacrificed his prayer. You always found him in cassock. He bore witness not only in dress, but in word, deed and lifestyle too to Christ his Master. Appointed Rector of the Seminary in those heady days soon after Vatican II; he strove with might and main to provide the aggiornamento called for by the Council in things academic, spiritual, human and pastoral ,so that those who came out of seminary formation as priests would be able to respond with relevance to a Church and society in transition. He lived these priestly concerns in his well prepared and well appreciated Sunday sermons. They always began with a story and a new one every week. If he repeated one his colleagues would bring it to his notice.
He was a man of Gospel values and principles, but firm, he guided many a seminarian in the ways of God’s Spirit, assisted the Church in various capacities, serving on different committees, was one of the founder members of the TPI (Theological Publications in India) and its President for many years. The spirit and motive behind this last undertaking was the same as that which guided him in serving the poor. He knew that our Indian students of Theology would not be able to purchase the necessary text books in their foreign editions. So obtaining the required permission for reprinting such books in India from the original publishers, he made accessible at affordable prices books like the RSV Bible, Gospel Parallels, Jerome Biblical Commentary, Sacramentun Mundi, Canon Law and Christian Faith.
Fr Vally was a man of peace; he always sought to reconcile those divided, whether by religion, language, ideology or personal animosities. His was a spirituality not heavy on devotions and external piety, but one drawn from the wisdom of the Cross, whose power he experienced in his bodily weakness caused by asthma and renal complications. He knew pain and the redemptive value of suffering, and he strove to complete in his body the sufferings that were lacking in the Body of Christ, the Church.
Few would know of his constant and ardent endeavour to give God to people and to take people back to God by making Christ known and loved through the various media of communication, be they audio-visual tapes, scripts, dances, dramas, local folk-arts or popular media. The rich collection of tapes, scripts, charts, posters he had left behind, neatly arranged and classified, tell of his painstaking efforts to use every creature to give glory to the Father by sharing the knowledge of His Son, Jesus. He used the local languages- Konkani, Kannada, Tulu –and offered his programs to Hindus, Muslims, Christians, to all men and women who cared to assist at them. In this he was ably supported by his team of social workers, Sisters and the seminarians. He was even prepared to organize a course on evangelization through the Popular Media for the Scholastics of the Province.
Fr Vally: Professor & Rector. Fr Vally spent his entire priestly life in St Joseph’s Seminary, Mangalore, as Professor, formator and Rector. However he was not insulated from the day-to-day concerns and struggles of the poor. While he continued his regular work of teaching and guiding the seminarians, the cries of the poor and needy took him to the poor neighbourhoods of Mangalore and beyond, and he initiated projects of acquiring land and building houses for the shelterless families of all religions and languages. He was convinced that our “commitment to work for justice on behalf of the voiceless and powerless will lead us to make a serious effort to discover what their problems are and then to recognize and assume our responsibilities to society.”(CG 32, 4:42)
While encouraging the Seminarians to join him in the work of uplifting the downtrodden, he became an inspiration to many. Through work and example he taught the Seminarians how to integrate their intellectual and spiritual life with social involvement. Many priests trained by Fr Valerian acknowledged that he had been their inspiration in their love for the poor and the needy.
By nature Fr Vally was gentle, but at the same time he could be firm, which is a quality required in any good leader. He would not get angry, and if perchance he got angry, he would apologize. “My dear Brother, wherever we are, wherever we go, we should remember we are men of God” That would restore calm and peace.
As it was the post-Vatican era, there were many changes in the mode of governance (dialogue, group discussion, discernment etc). This as well as the gentle and lovable temperament of Fr Vally combined made him a Father figure, much loved by the Seminarians. He would join them for games, outdoor and indoor. As he made his classes interesting, the students enjoyed them. If he saw anyone dozing, he would for a moment speak about something interesting. All these factors contributed to make the seminarians feel he was a unique person: to be loved, not feared.
He was a very successful teacher and the seminarians loved his classes. He combined humour with erudition. He would even prepare his jokes which made his classes lively. Once when Fr Walter Fernandes asked him whether he could take the first hour instead of the second which was his in the time table, he said “Give me fifteen minutes. I only have to prepare two jokes.” He would prepare his classes meticulously and deliver his lectures with humour and joy.
Fr Valerian the Jesuit: for his Jesuit community at the Seminary –that was the only community he was in after his formation – which had the joy of sharing his life and love, what will remain in their minds was his cheerfulness, his readiness to help in every way possible, his simplicity of life linked with breadth of vision, his subtle sense of humour which never hurt anyone, the total absence of any criticism, be it of persons, food, living conditions – a rare quality among Jesuits.-
Fr Vally was a community man, united in heart and mind with his fellow Jesuits, ever ready to share his successes and failures, joys and sorrows with his fellow servants in Christ’s Mission. Regular at community meetings and prayer services, he was genuinely interested in others and in their ministries, and openly shared his experiences and expertise with them, while also seeking their advice and suggestions on his ministries.
His fifty plus years in the Society of Jesus were years of joy and self-fulfilment in the Lord’s mission, and much before it became a slogan, his life was dedicated to the promotion of justice in the service of faith “integrating into this service both inter-religious dialogue and dialogue with people of other cultures.
Good Fr Valerian left us in a shocking hurry on 21 May after a massive heart attack in the morning. The funeral took place the next day evening, attended by over a hundred priests, a large number of Sisters and lay people. As it was vacation time, only a handful of Seminarians could be present. Among the sobbing mourners was a big group of Hindus and Muslims whom Fr Vally wholeheartedly cared for during the previous 28 years - building houses for them in several centers, educating their children, and trying to bring dignity and meaning into their lives.
He would not like to be canonized by us; such was his humility, but greatness lay lightly on his broad shoulders, because he learnt early in life that true greatness consists in the ability to serve generously in unsolicited love. The power of his love effected great things in the lives of the poor and the simple, and he has left for us, his brothers in the Society, “friends in the Lord”, an example to be cherished and followed. The most worthy tribute that we could raise for him is to continue his unfinished task, the mission of Christ entrusted to the Society. May his intercession with the Lord enable us to satisfy this yearning of his heart, and may our suffrages obtain for him the fulfillment of his dreams.
A Muslim admirer of Fr Vally published the following touching homage to him in a local daily:
A person so loving and kind, No one else on earth we find. He helped the poor in need, with no distinction of caste and creed. Left us and gone for eternal rest. Jesus in him we have found best.
- by Fr Richard Sequeira, SJ
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