New Delhi: A Catholic prelate, who braved the worst Christian prosecution in modern India, died on August 14, a few days after winning a huge legal battle for his battered people.
Archbishop Raphael Cheenath “provided leadership to a people who were shattered,” says John Dayal, a Catholic lay leader mourning the death of the Divine World prelate who led Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese for more than 25 years.
The archbishop died of colon cancer at the Holy Spirit Hospital in Mumbai, western India, around 10 pm. He was 82.
“I mourn a friend, and a leader of rare stature,” Dayal wrote in his Facebook account soon after hearing the news about the prelate’s death.
The archdiocese covers Kandhamal district of the eastern Indian state of Odisha that in 2008 witnessed the worst ant-Christian violence in India’s modern history.
Around “60,000 had to flee to the forests to save their lives after 6,000 and more houses were destroyed by the attackers. More than 100 men and women were killed, and many women, including Catholic nuns, were gang raped,” wrote Dayal, former president of the All India Catholic Union who had worked with Archbishop Cheenath “very closely for over 16 years.”
In an earlier article in heraldofindia.com, Dayal noted that Archbishop Cheenath provided leadership to a battered and fragile community consisting of indigenous Tribal Kondh people and Dalit Panos groups, the poorest and the most marginalized segments of the population, to stand up to the worst form of persecution Christians have faced in over three hundred years.”
He hailed the prelate as a “really inspired personality” whose death was a “great loss” for the Indian Church. “We were lucky to have him as a leader of determination and courage,” Dayal added.
According to him, Archbishop Cheenath “died a winner” since the Supreme Court of India on August 2 upheld the prelate’s Public Interest Litigation for enhanced relief to the victims of the August 2008 targeted violence against the Christian community of Kandhamal.
Archbishop Cheenath was born on December 29, 1934, in Kerala, southern India. He was ordained a priest on September 21, 1963. He was appointed bishop of Sambalpur in Odisha (then Orissa) in 1974. He was appointed archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar on July 1, 1985, a post he held until retirement on February 11, 2011.
Father Ajay Kumar Singh, an activist priest from Kandhamal, says the prelate had made the difference in the lives of thousands of people of Odisha. “He stoutly fought for justice. When the Odisha government refused NGOs and civil society to distribute relief among Kandhamal victims and survivors, he took the matters to the Supreme Court and got the state government order cancelled,” the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar priest recalled.
“I saluted the man, who guided me for the past 15 years,” Father Singh said and added that the prelate fought for justice until the end.
At the time of his retirement, Archbishop Cheenath had lauded Christians of Kandhamal for setting an example of living the faith in a hostile environment. “You have raised the faith into new heights at the face of death. I am proud of you,” he told some 3,000 people at Raikia, a divisional headquarters in Kandhamal district.
Jacob Digal, a village leader in Kandhamal, appreciated the archbishop’s efforts to get justice for the violence victims. “He went up to the Supreme Court and earned the ecumenical leadership. He stood by every denomination,” he added.
Shibani Behera, a woman leader, said the archbishop was a Marian devotee who always encouraged women to take the lead for the community’s advancement.
Satyabrata Jena, a local government official, said the administration could control violence because Christians heeded to the archbishop’s call to remain calm and tolerant, despite severe provocations. “He helped the government to restore the peace,” Jena added.