By Jessy Joseph

New Delhi, March 28, 2022: The newly elected leader of northern India’s first Catholic religious congregation for men says his priorities include fostering unity and missionary zeal among his people and bringing a movement of indigenized Catholicism to mainstream society.

“Our community life is not perfect. Some members are indifferent. So, my first priority is to bring all the members together under one umbrella through dialogue,” says Father Francis Prasanna Raj, who on February 28 was elected as the superior general of the Indian Missionary Society.

The 67-year-old leader told Matters India March 27 that he also wants to revive his congregation’s missionary zeal.

The congregation was founded on November 3, 1941, by Father Gaspar Arseuius Pinto, a Mangalorean, to provide the Church mission-minded indigenous priests and evangelist brothers, especially trained for pioneering missionary work in India and neighboring countries.

Father Raj had been serving the congregation as its interim leader since August 31, 2021, when the then general Father Standley W Francis resigned three years before his term ended.

While Father Raj said his predecessor resigned because of serious health problems, Father Francis told Matters India September 17, 2021, that he had found it difficult to deal with some issues within and outside the congregation. “I felt quite disheartened and discouraged and felt like I have reached saturation,” he added.

Some members, who had raised several allegations against Father Francis, said he quit after the Vatican had asked him to resign.

One of them, Father Dominic Thundathil, says around 30 members have left the congregation in the past ten years because of the “hurdles created” by the leaders.

According to him, hunger for money and power had led the superiors to forget the congregation’s real mission. “They have no time to listen to the priests or help solve our issues,” he told Matters India in September 2021. He also alleged the previous leaders had indulged in misappropriation of funds and illegal sale of land. “Those who question them are maltreated,” he said.

Father Raj dismissed the allegations as fabricated to discredit his predecessors who had questioned some members for their misconduct. “It is true that some 30 priests have left the society in the past ten years, but for various personal reasons,” he explained

The congregation’s accounts are “well audited and there is no way the leaders can misuse funds,” Father Raj asserted.

The news superior general also wants to bring to mainstream society the Khrist Bhakta (devotees of Christ), non-baptized devotees of Christ. The spiritual movement began as the result of the congregation’s evangelization work in Varanasi, a holy city of Hinduism in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The Khrist Bhaktas believe in Christ but do not receive baptism to avoid social and family problems. The community, constituted by Dalits and Other Backward Classes, is 85 percent women. They are found mostly in the villages of the Varanasi region.

“The Khrist Bhaktas are deprived of their basic rights, education, and employment, just because they follow the teachings of Jesus. I plan to uplift them socially and economically, by finding employment,” Father Raj said.

He said his men will have to “invest our energy, quality time and resources for a meaningful religious and missionary life and cooperate with all, in building up a harmonious society and for the reign of God.”

He also plans to encourage his men to reach out to those on the peripheries.

Father Raj was ordained a priest on March 25, 1984. He has specialized in English literature, and Phonaesthetics of Communication from EU, Hyderabad, Psychology and Counseling from England, and master’s in biblical theology from Rome.

He has served the missions of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Warangal. He also spent a few years of pastoral service in the United States.

He was also the congregation’s Delhi provincial.

He has served as rector and professor at the congregation’s minor and major seminaries. He is a good musician, dancer and poet.

The congregation now has two provinces — Delhi, Varanasi — and a region, Ranchi where 222 priests serve 43 dioceses in four countries.