By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, April 25, 2020: Civil rights groups will join the Jesuits to organize special programs in various parts of India to pay tribute on the 85th birth anniversary of Father Stan Swamy, modern apostle of justice and truth.
Father Swamy, Jesuit social activist, died July 5, 2021, as an undertrial prisoner. He dedicated his life for the emancipation of the downtrodden, especially tribal and Dalit groups.
The main program on April 26 will be at Bagaicha, the social center Father Swamy founded near Ranchi, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
On the occasion, a message from Jesuit superior general Father Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal will be read.
Other programs include installation of a bust of Father Swamy in the campus and release two books – the Hindi translation of Jesuit Father Prakash Louis’ book on Father Swamy and another titled “If not now, when? Disquieting Feminist Questions.”
The second book, an anthology, is inspired by Father Swamy’s life and death. It “is a chorus of feminist voices who speak truth to power, reclaim suppressed spiritualties, and dare to dream and to dissent,” says Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, one of the editors.
The book brings to the center, voices from the margins, in the form of conversations and stories of unlettered and unknown women who have paid a heavy price for refusing to be silent spectators, Gajiwala adds.
Other editors are feminist theologian Kochurani Abraham and Jesuit Father Prashant Olakekar. Its online version will released on May 7.
In the national capital, the Federation of Catholic Associations of Archdiocese of Delhi will organize a Remembrance Day at Diocesan Community Centre in the campus of Archbishop’s House of Delhi Archdiocese.
Monsignor Susai Sebastian, the past vicar general of the archdiocese, will preside over the two-hour program starting 4 pm. Jesuit Father P R John, principal of Vidyajyoti College of Theology will moderate the program.
Speakers include Apoorvanand, a professor at the Hindi Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi, and a political commentator, Farah Naqvi, a writer, consultant and activist who works on gender and minority rights, John Dayal, veteran journalist and spokesperson of All India Catholic Union, and Father Savarimuthu, the archdiocesan spokesperson.
Jesuit Father Denzil Fernandes, executive director of Indian Social Institute, commended the “good initiative of the laity of Delhi to pay tribute to the life and work of Fr Stand, who continues to inspire present and future generations to stand for justice and truth.”