Catholic media persons mourn death of Jesuit author

By Jose Kavi

New Delhi: Catholic media persons in India on April 10 mourned the death of Jesuit Father Varghese Paul, a prolific Gujarati writer who started a news agency for South Asia in early 1980s. He was 77.

Father Paul, a member of the Gujarat Jesuit province, died at 7:30 am on April 10 at GMERS (Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society) Hospital at Gotri in Vadodara, Gujarat. “He was shifted to the hospital last night. Lately he suffered from Covid besides other illnesses that he was suffering from,” says a message from Father Cedric Prakash, a Gujarat Jesuit.

“We thank Lord for his vocation to Gujarat Jesuit Province and his contribution to Gujarat Church and literature,” he added.

Father Paul was a Jesuit for 56 years and a priest for 33 years. For the past one year, he had been confined to the Jesuit infirmary in Vadodara.

Ignatius Gonsalves, president of the Indian Catholic Press Association (ICPA), mourning the death, hailed Father Paul as “a veteran in the field of Christian communication and the seniormost member of our organization.”

“He was a much awarded author in Gujarati. Among the more than thirty books he has authored on various topics only one is in English. All the rest are in Gujarati. The contributions of this prolific writer for Gujarati language and literature will be ever cherished,” said Gonsalves, the second lay person to head the 58-year-old association.

Father Paul was also “deeply involved in training young journalists,” the ICPA president recalled. He was the live wire leader of two international training programs that the ICPA conducted in collaboration with UCIP, the world body of Catholic Journalists.

Anto Akkara, who contributes articles to international press, found Father Paul a “passionate journalist priest” who has done “yeoman” service to the Church’s communication mission for more than four decades. “He encouraged, initiated and trained many in writing and journalism,” Akkara wrote on his Facebook page.

Father Paul launched the South Asian Religious News in 1981 as part of an ICPA activity to disseminate news about the Church and society in the region. He set up a network of reporters in South Asia and conducted training programs. Father M J Edwin, a priest of Kottar diocese, succeeded Father Paul as the news agency’s executive director.

In his condolence message, Father Edwin says SAR News would not have “seen the light of the day had it not been for his hard, systematic and sustained work.”

He hailed the Jesuit priest as “an imaginative leader and courageous initiator” to whom writing came easily.

Father George Plathottam, executive secretary of the Office of Social Communication under the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, mourned the death of “a doyen of the Catholic press” who “with his life and works he showed how to serve the Lord and his people.”

Father Plathottam, an Indian Salesian priest, said Father Paul had travelled extensively, wrote profusely and “set us all an example of persistence and perseverance.”

Father Paul received the Lifetime Achievement Award from National and International Compendium, New Delhi, in 2017. The award certificate said the priest was honored for his outstanding achievements in media.

A year earlier, he received the “Jewel of India Award” from International Institute of Education and Management at a special function in New Delhi. In the same year he also received “Star of Asia Award” for his outstanding achievement.

Father Paul was born on May 31, 1943, as the eldest of 5 boys and four girls of Annakutty and Paul Chollamandam, a Catholic family in Avoly Ennallur near Muvattupuzha in Kerala’s Ernakulam district. Mathew, one of his younger brothers, is a Salesian priest serving in northeastern India.

After matriculation Paul joined the Society of Jesus on June 8, 1964 and pronounced his first vows on the same day two years later. He was ordained a priest, in Gesu, Rome, on June 21, 1977.