By Sujata Jena

Bhubaneswar, June 13, 2022: Manoranjan Nayak, an officer of the Odisha Administration, thanks a Catholic priest for helping him reach where he is now.

“I went through a critical financial constraint in 2002 when I started preparing for civil services. Father Abraham [Karukaparambil] came to my rescue in time. Without his help, it may not have been possible to crack the exam as a young man,” he says.

Nayak was among some 200 people who had recently gathered at Anugraha Peetha (Center of Grace), a church center in Mohana, a town in Odisha’s Gajapati district, to express their gratitude to Father Karukaparambil.

Nayak, who is currently in the Odisha government’s department of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Development, Minority and Backward Class Welfare, says he carries the priest’s mission by doing his duty sincerely for the advancement of the marginalized communities.

Father Karukaparambil, a native of the southern Indian state of Kerala, has supported the education of Odisha’s less privileged children for almost three decades since his priestly ordination on May 8, 1995.

“I was assigned as an assistant priest in Aliganda parish of Berhampur diocese where I was also in charge of more than 150 boys. Most of them could not afford even the 50-rupee monthly boarding fee,” the 57-year-old priest recalled.

So, he decided to add his own “widow’s mite” to change the situation.

Mamta Manjuri Devi, a program officer at Jhpiego, a non-profit organization for international health affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, says Father Karukaparambil has become a hope to the hopeless like her. “He has been a fatherly figure in my journey to pursue my nursing career,” said the officer who is now in Udaipur in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan.

She says she would remain grateful to the priest for “his support and help in building my career, that I have been able to reach this level.”

In her keynote address at the June 4 meeting, Devi noted that 112 students now pursue various professional courses because of the priest. Among them 10 are for medicine, two for pharmacy, one for Masters in Nursing, 14 for Bachelors course in nursing, and 13 for general nursing and midwifery. One person is doing doctorate, one each for Chartered Accountancy and law. Seven each are studying B. Tech, MBA. BBA or BCA (7). Around 12 are preparing for medical entrance exam, two in civil service preparation, and three for B Ed. Nine are in college and 31 are in various stages in school

Besides Nayak, others who have made a mark in life are Susanto Beero, a professor of economics in Delhi, Doctor Sukanta Gomango, serving in a government clinic, and Bibekanand has done doctorate in Mathematics.

As many as 10 nurses and other medical personnel work in All India Institute of Medical Sciences, some teach in government and private schools, others are on government projects and in private sectors.

Asked where he gets his resource to respond to the many requests, Father Karukaparambil said, “It all began 25 years ago with borrowed money of 6,000 rupees and a stipend of 5,000 rupees received after preaching a retreat to a group of sisters.”

Today, his resources include his savings from 10 years of stay and ministry in the United States and gifts and donations from family and friends. He said, “There is a friend named John Caddedu who is more generous every time he gives. A group of retired people from my former parish formed a small group and named it ‘Lantern Light.’ They raise a small amount every year,” he explained.

Three siblings of an NRI family in the US heard of Father Karukaparambil’s work and started a non-profitable organization named Making Medical Dreams (MMD). Two of them were still in high school when they started it. “They raise funds for me exclusively from Keralite families in California,” the priest added.

Asked about his future plan, the priest said, “I have no clue what the future holds, but I know for sure who holds the future–the God of surprises. This knowledge is sufficient for me. I trust also that the goodness of at least some beneficiaries, if not all, will take the initiative forward.”

In his concluding message, Father Karukaparambil said, “Twenty-five years ago I lighted a candle instead of wasting time cursing the darkness. A candle doesn’t give much light but gives sufficient light for the next step in the dark. This is what I expect from you, too.”