Mail
Print
Discuss
To gain time, the central government is ventilating the idea of establishing a States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) to evaluate the different demands, to interview all the concerned parties and to establish some criteria for defining new states.
INDIAN CATHOLIC
You are here : Home >> Top Stories
Jesuits look back on 150 years of Bengal mission
Published : November 27 2009
The order has had a big impact on lives in the region through education, literary contributions and a translation of the Bible into Bengali.
Father Andre Bruylants, 83, former headmaster of the Jesuit-run St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, has been working in the mission for 60 years. He is one of seven remaining Belgian Jesuits in the religious society’s Calcutta province.
Jesuit teachers had educated thousands of people and become icons of Catholic education in the region, he says.
Others have influenced the region’s socio-cultural leaders through scholarly interreligious exchanges, and reached out to Indians through the study of Hindu scriptures and engagement with Hindu intellectuals.
Jesuits have influenced literary thinking through publishing and translating Western Christian classics into Bengali, and also helped locals use their own language in worship.
Father Christian Mignon, 85, came to the mission at the age of 25. He was to make a unique contribution to religious life in Bengal, translating the Bible into Bengali over 40 years. The job, in which he was helped by Hindu poet and teacher, Sajal Banerjea, was completed in 2003.
He had previously translated liturgical texts after the Second Vatican Council, which opened the way to the use of local languages in the Mass.
English Jesuits first came to Kolkata in 1833 and started St. Xavier’s but left the country in 1849 after a conflict with the local bishop.
The Belgian Jesuits, who arrived in the city in 1859, were invited to restart the school, which they did within two months in January 1860.
Belgian Jesuit Father Albert Huart, 85, who translated a book on the Jesuits’ Bengal-mission history, is former vice-principal of St. Xavier’s College.
He said that the Belgians expanded from the English educational base to probe further the possibilities of village missions.
Initially the Jesuits’ focus was on the Chotanagpur area, in the present state of Jharkhand. This was where Jesuit Father Constant Lievens (1856-1893), whom the tribal Church reveres as the "apostle of Chotanagpur," had worked to restore tribal dignity.
By 1869 the Jesuits were entrusted with the Bengal mission, at the time consisting of the present Indian states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
Courtesy : UCAN
Top Stories
After Telangana, increased pressure to give birth to 12 new states in India
Riot-hit Orissa experiences peaceful Christmas
“There were Christmas celebrations in all parishes, except one, this year,” said Father Mrutyunjay Digal, an official of Cuttack Bhubaneswar archdiocese that has 14 parishes in the district.
- Christmas: A Joy to be shared and a hope to be lived!!!
- The Heart of Religious Faith
- Archdiocese of Karachi to launch satellite TV channel
- Rent-a-womb, a thriving business but a moral and legal conundrum
- Carmelite monastery: John Paul II and Pius XII, defenders of life and promoters of peace
- Christmas fair attacked
- Church urges immediate adoption of dalit-rights report
Asia
Register | Advertise with Us |Write For Us | Contribute | About Us | Feedback | Site Map
All Rights are Reserved by Indian Catholic