By Jose Kavi

New Delhi, July 2, 2020: The death of Father Robert Astorino has created a vacuum in me and I feel orphaned. Father Bob, as we called him, was my guru in professional journalism and mentor in life.

I saw Maryknoll Father Bob first time at the conference of International Catholic Press Association (UCIP) in New Delhi in 1986. I had heard a lot about him from Jesuit Father Varghese Paul, the founder director of South Asian Religious News (SAR News), and from Father M J Edwin, his successor. I was then working with SAR, UCAN’s South Asian counterpart.

I never got a chance to talk to Bob then, as he was busy promoting “Asia Focus,” now defunct weekly publication of UCAN.

A year later, I got an aerogram letter from Bob saying that he was looking for someone to start UCAN operations in India and that my name was suggested by Father John Vallamattam, who was then the SAR News director and UCIP president.

Bob asked me if I could meet Jesuit Father Joe Naidu, his friend from Bangalore, who was visiting the Indian Social Institute in Lodi Road, New Delhi. By then, I had left SAR and was working as a sub-editor with the United News of India, one of the two premier news agencies in India.

I met Father Naidu in September 1987 and told him I would work only part time for UCAN. I did not want to work for another “Church” media organization after spending four years in SAR News. I was happy to get out a Church news agency and work in a “secular” media organization.

Father Naidu said he would inform Bob my views. Soon, another letter from Bob arrived saying he was visiting New Delhi in December and would like to meet me at the CBCI (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India) Centre where he would be staying.

When we met, I repeated my request and Bob agreed. As India (South Asia) was covered by SAR News, Bob and Vallamattam entered into an agreement on UCAN using SAR stories. I was supposed to collect the SAR dispatches from its office and select stories of international importance and rehash them for UCAN. Vallamattam insisted I do the UCAN work at the SAR office, which I refused. Bob saw my reason and said I could work from home. He gave me money (1,500 rupees) to buy a portable typewriter to do the UCAN work. My UNI salary then was only 850 rupees.

There began my more than three-decades of friendship with Bob.

As agreed, my work with UCAN began on January 1, 1988, just four days before Archana, my daughter, was born. I brought SAR dispatch home and reworked it and typed the story on A-4 papers and mailed it to Hong Kong. The post would take a week to ten days to reach Hong Kong and the UCAN office reedited and published it the following week. The Hong Kong office used to mail me a complimentary UCAN copy. A big help was Sabu Chacko, my nephew, who was staying with me and studying at Don Bosco Technical School in Okhla. Sabu started collecting the SAR dispatches after class.

The UCAN dispatch took a week to reach Delhi. So, I read India stories two or three weeks after I worked on them. SAR News received reports its correspondent through mail. So, UCAN readers read the news about a Church event in India after almost a month. Nobody then complained about the delay.

After six months or so, UCAN ended its agreement with SAR as the Indian agency objected to my independent reporting. As I was working with UNI, I had better access to news, even about the Church. Also, I had to do research to turn the SAR stories for an international audience. This helped me find other new items not reported by SAR. SAR demanded that I should get those stories first published in SAR.

After ending the SAR agreement, UCAN started collecting news on its own from India. By early 1989, Bob began talking about starting a reporters’ network in India. He suggested I work full time and I reluctantly agreed.

We had 13 people from various parts of India for the first UCAN training program in India. Most of them were professional journalists working in Indian newspapers. Father Joe Naidu organized it in May 1989at a convent hostel in Bangalore. One of the participants has become a prelate now: Bishop Yoohanon Theodoisus of Muvattupuzha. He was then Father John Kochuthundil, secretary to Archbishop Benedict Gregorios, the then head of the Syro-Malankara Church.

The full-fledged UCAN India office started functioning from my house temporarily. Later my landlord, N C Shukla, allowed us to use the house I stayed as the office and I had to move to another place lock, stock and barrel.

Our office kept changing with times – technologically, at least. The office telephone was bought from a neighbor for 13,000 rupees. In 1999, mobile came to the office. The first computer was a 286 XT, which we booted with a disc. Then came 386, 486 and Pentiums of various versions. Our office was among the first to install Internet in the Trans-Yamuna area.

UCAN and its India office grew from strength to strength until it was taken over by a new regime of more consultants and less professional journalists. People who had spent decades nurturing the agency watched with sadness as the great values of journalism that Bob taught them to uphold were slowly getting sidelined.

I left UCAN in December 2012, after 25 years. But Bob had left it in 2009. He read the new regime’s mind and kept away from UCAN and all its people, even his disciples. But such sacrifices had little impact, as the new regime eased out all of Bob’s people one by one.

Looking back, I consider the 22 years of work with Bob as the golden period of my journalism career. I am grateful to him for helping me understand news and treat it with respect and diligence. His “Ten Rules of Reporting” are my guiding principles. Rules such as “Don’t report if you do not understand the event,” or “Don’t report until you know what to report,” are the best manthras for any reporter. “Show, don’t tell,” is another command for reporters.

Bob encouraged us to find reporters all over India and UCAN India had a robust reporters’ network when he was at the helm. He encouraged us to tell the stories of the poor and those working for them. Our reports from the grassroots had the smell of the poor as well as the aroma of happiness that emanated from their struggles.

Bob insisted on Asians telling their stories to others. As editors, it was our responsibility to make those stories intelligible for the international audience that kept expanding under Bob. “Reporters report, editors edit,” Bob would say.

Nearly 300 people had undergone various types of training programs conducted by UCAN in India. Those were the occasions for the reporters come together at least once a year. It is to Bob’s credit that most former UCAN reporters in India kept in touch with each even after they stopped reporting for the agency.

Some memorable reporting experiences were covering the death and funeral of Mother Teresa, and Pope John Paul’s second visit to India in 1999.

There are unforgettable reporting experiences: Torching of Graham Staines and sons and the super cyclone – both in Odisha in 1999, Gujarat earthquake of 2001, Godhra train carnage and Gujarat anti-Muslim violence of 2002, the Asian Tsunami of 2004 and other historical events.

We sweated profusely when Bob was at the editor’s desk. He would find some problem even with our best reported and edited copies. It was all the more difficult for Indians, who are known to use cliches, verbosity and lots of escapist terminologies.

Nobody felt offended by Bob’s sharp editing and persistent questions to clarify stories because outside the editorial room he was a man of a big heart. His love for people was legendary. His relationship with his people was not limited to the job requirements.

He accepted their families as his own, whatever their culture. I am sure all who have worked with Bob would vouch for his generosity, understanding and empathy. A person who can love humans the way Bob had done deserves to be in heaven.

What I cherish the most about Bob is his trust in his people. After giving general guidelines, Bob let us implement them the way they think suitable for their country. There was no breathing down one’s shoulders, as his successors did. He respected his people’s judgment and decisions.

Bob was gracious in accepting criticism. He would sit quietly when we criticized him during the annual joint meetings of editors from National and Main offices. He never got upset.

I met Bob last time at Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2016. He had come there as a consultant-observer to the plenary of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, and I was part of the Matters India team that was invited to cover the program. Other team members were Santosh Digal and Thomas Scaria.

Bob showed keen interest in Matters India, which a group of his old disciples started in 2013. He expressed surprise that the agency functioned for four years without any funding.

The last message from him was when told of the split in UCAN. When briefed about current situation in the agency he founded, Father Bob, who was then in the United States, told Matters India: “It concerns me, mainly for the sake of the Church in Asia.”

Bob is no more but his concerns are still valid. His vision and mission would continue through his people. Matters India is a humble attempt at that.

It was exciting to read about Bob taking his mission to Africa, another continent.

Bob always surprised his people when he was alive. He continues to do so even after meeting with his Lord and Master. As soon as Bob arrived his heavenly home, his people on earth have started coming together on their own. Only a few of them had bothered to be in touch after leaving UCAN. But things have changed within a few days with the formation of groups named “Disciples of Bob Astorino” on Facebook and WhatsApp platforms.

I see this reunion as a sign that the indefatigable workaholic that Bob is has not wasted time to work for his mission in Asia from heaven.

May he intercede for all his disciples and the Asian Church he loved so much.The Church in Asia can forget this great missionary only at its peril.