Mission Activity in Karnataka

Mission activity in South Canara

Though the Mangaloreans had repeatedly asked for the Jesuits for the purpose of education, the Society of Jesus could not neglect missionary activity. Indeed, the Society has always considered it its primary apostolate.

The history of mission work in the Vice province is a page written in gold. By his heroic efforts Fr Francis Xavier Maffei in 1898 blazed the trail. Much earlier, from the very time he had landed in Mangalore with the first batch of Jesuits in 1878, Fr Maffei had taken up mission work by preaching missions and giving talks, moving from place to place for this purpose. Finally, he turned a full missionary and went all out to conquer souls by prayer, penance, and even severe austerities, till he died all alone in a hut at Nellikunja. He did not die in vain. The road for heroic efforts in missionary life had been laid. Fr F. Corti initiated mission work in Naravi and the surrounding areas. His adventures and exploits often reached the limit of human endurance. From 1904 to 1926 he spent himself in the service of the 'outcastes' to make them 'God's children' as he himself used to term them. It was not a work of just baptizing: it was work for social justice, service of humanity, philanthropy and charity all in one. He became one with the people, living with them and like them and stood by them too through thick and thin, He carried Christ's message, and began a splendid process of liberation of these people from serfdom, from bonded labour and from ignorance. He fought their battles in courts of law, too. He became the 'pariah guru' or the Naravi chieftain. Long before Mahatma Gandhi Frs Corti, Gaviraghi and Camisa had spotted out the Harijans as the oppressed ones and spent themselves in their service.

For 25 years Fr Angelo Gaviraghi moved on foot from place to place-Arva, Badyar, Belthangady and Madanthyar in search of outcastes and the poor. He is well remembered in these places. Subsisting he let his zeal take him across forests and on meagre and simple food, fields. Neither the hot sun nor his own bad health, -a virulent type of eczema was his constant companion-nor even opposition from vested interests deterred him from Christ's work.

Fr Alexander Camisa took up the work among the lowest of the outcastes, the 'Korgars', and became a white Korgar for Christ's sake. For more than thirty years, from 1920 to 1955, he worked for the Korgars, trying with secular and Christian education to raise their status in life. He introduced schools and handicrafts which helped them secure the means for a better living. All through it was a herculean task. For the benefit of his Korgars he even wrote the first Tulu catechism.

At Suratkal Fr Denis Coelho, the first Mangalorean Jesuit, worked as a missionary to gain the goodwill of the non-Christians in that area. For twenty years from 1898 to 1918, he strove to spread the knowledge of Christ. He had a practical bent of mind and sought to stabilize his work through schools, cooperative societies, the printed word and pictures. In fact, he started seven schools and secured from the Government many acres of land for his people.

Mention must be made also of Fr Antony Zearo who worked as a missionary all his years in India, first in South Kanara (Narol, Alankar...) and then in Wynad. He is in a way a link between the early and later missionaries.

The last of this noble band of missionaries brings us to the early years of the second half of the century, in fact to 1955.

With the shifting of the missionary activity to the Calicut region in 1923 the torch of zeal began to glow there, first in the hills of Wynad-at Meppady, Manantody, Vayittiri-and at Shoranur in the plains. Frs Lombardini, Sebastian Noronha and John Coelho patiently and painstakingly sought out souls in the estates and fields. Lonely was their life, unsung by human voices their work, but numberless were the souls they gained for heaven.

Soon, however, with the arrival of new young men, missionary activity shifted to the vast Pulaya areas. Fr Caironi with his restless zeal became the pioneer here and like Fr Maffei lit the torch. But unlike Fr Maffei, he was young and God granted him years of active life to move about far and wide, setting ablaze everything with his missionary torch. The Chirakkal Mission with its several substations covering a large area is the fruit of Fr Caironi's efforts. Frs Montanari, Del Zotto, Zucol, Zearo and Taffarel rivalled his exploits so that from 1950 the area was flourishing with missionary activity with chapels, dispensaries, hospitals, and Christian homes springing all over. Here too the missionaries were apostles of social justice, standing for the rights of the poor outcastes or the Pulayas. If a large number of the Pulayas today have emerged as respectable citizens, knowing their responsibilities and duties, the blessings are traceable to the tireless labours of the missionaries.

With the erection of the Karnataka Vice-province in 1955 missionary activity had to shift to the Karnataka State. In fact, Fr J. B. Janssens, the then Jesuit General, in his decree establishing Karnataka Vice-province had urged the starting of new mission stations in the territories of the various dioceses. The bishops too welcomed the proposal. Thus, a new era of missionary activity started with its concomitants like social work, education and social uplift. Between the years 1955 and 1975 no less than 25 priests laboured in more than 40 mission stations or sub-stations spread over the five dioceses of Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty, Bellary and Chikmagalur. Chief of these mission stations were Adigondanahalli, Basavanapura, Channa patna, Chikkakammanahalli, Kunigal, Sira, Soosaipalayam and Tiptur in the Diocese of Bangalore: Chamrajnagar, Gundlupet, Hunsur, Nagavalli, Prakashapalayam, Somwarpet and Sunticoppa in the Diocese of Mysore; Dasapura and Magge in the Diocese of Chikmagalur: Doddagajanur and Mudianur in the Diocese of Ooty: Gulbarga, Manvi, Munirabad, Sandur, Shahabad and Tungabhadra Dam in the Diocese of Bellary. The list is formidable. For 20 years, among many others, Frs Denis Alvares, John Aranha, Ambrose D'Mello, Patrick D'Mello, Denis D'Souza, Norbert D'Souza, Aloysius Farias, Andrew Lewis, Mathew Lewis, Cyprian Pai, Isidore Pinto, Thomas Pinto and John B. Prabhu have toiled in these areas with varying degrees of success. And what did they do in these places? Together with the knowledge of faith, they sought to give the people better conditions of material life houses of their own, plots to cultivate, job facilities and abilities with the know ledge of a craft. Chapels too rose, schools were opened, fields cultivated. In most cases when the situation improved, they handed over the station to diocesan authorities and moved on to new pastures.

Walking in the footsteps of their forebears the missionaries of our own day have striven and still strive, each in his own way, to spread the good news to the people of Karnataka, mainly in the Kannada-speaking areas. Given the times their approach must be different: direct evangelization, development, social emancipation and literacy programme have been some of their effective methods.

Of the recent missionaries, two have gone to their eternal reward: Fr Andrew Lewis and Fr Luigi Perego. The former did silent work for Christ in several places, first in the Kerala region and then in the diocese of Mysore. Fr Perego was a missionary all his priestly life. A staunch believer of direct evangelization, he practised it fearlessly in his musical Kannada. He put up a new Church at Basavanapura. He slogged for the people successfully and paid for his success dearly: he lost his health, his eyesight and finally died in Italy far from the land of his dreams-like Xavier, the patron of the Chikkakammanahalli parish where he laboured last in India. He was a real firebrand for Christ's sake.

Speaking of new churches, special mention must be made of the beautiful church on a hilltop at Somwarpet, erected by Fr John B. Prabhu, and of the splendid church of Gulbarga in the Muslim style of architecture and a true mark of inculturation-the labour of love of Fr C.C. A. Pai. Add to these the spacious church at Adigondanahalli built by Fr Denis Alvares and completed by Fr Thomas Pinto.

Not all might have put up new churches, but all have been earnestly engaged in the task of building the temple of God in the hearts of the people.

Fr Cyril V. Silva, stationed at present at T. B. Dam in Bellary Diocese, is the only one of our missionaries at present in the diaspora, while all others are working in one or the other of the two regions entrusted to the Karnataka Jesuits as the fields of their evangelization work Anekal area in the Bangalore Archdiocese and Kohima and the Chakhesang area in Nagaland.

In connection with the missionary activity of the Vice province it is with legitimate pride in Christ we mention our missionaries going West to Africa to help in the evangelization of that continent. In 1960 Fr William Picardo with Fr Mathew Lewis formed the vanguard. They took up work in the Mwanza Mission catechizing, teaching in schools, contacting youth, besides doing regular parish work. Though for reasons of health Fr Mathew Lewis returned to India, Fr Picardo continued his fruitful work for eighteen years. He was joined by Fr Aloysius D'Souza in 1963 and by Fr Stany Mascarenhas in 1971. Other Jesuits from other Provinces in India joined them so that today the Jesuits in East Africa form a Region of the Society of Jesus which extends from the Sudan to Tanzania.

- Taken from the Karnataka Jesuit Centenary, Souvenir, 1878-1978