By Matters India Reporter

Medan, Jan 26, 2023: An Indian origin Jesuit priest is credit for introducing to devotion to the Mother Mary of Vailankanni in the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Father James Bharataputra has been serving the Church in Indonesia for the past 50 years. The 84-year-old priest is credited with the construction of the Marian shrine “Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni” in Medan, the capital of the province of North Sumatra.

The island of Sumatra is inhabited mainly by indigenous groups and where traditionalist Islam is widespread.

Father James, as he is popularly known, was born in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was naturalized as an Indonesian in 1989.

Father James says he nurtured the desire to become a mission since he joined the Madurai province of the Jesuits. He was sent to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to complete his theological studies. After his ordination in 1970, he visited Medan and the then Capuchin Archbishop Van den Hurk of Medan asked him to provide pastoral care to a small local Tamil-speaking Catholic community.

“So, in 1972 I began the pastoral work in Medan, which continues to this day,” Father James says. During the past five decades in Sumatra, he also served in the province of Aceh in the island’s far north (then part of the Archdiocese of Medan). He was forced to leave the area because of a series of outbreaks of violence that shook the only Indonesian province that adopted parts of the “sharia” Islamic law.

In the Indonesian Church, Father James is known as the founder, initiator and still rector of the Marian Shrine “Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni” in Medan. “I am still amazed at how God’s loving providence led me to this mission land. And I am just as amazed at the great trust placed in me by my Jesuit superiors. It was they who allowed me to serve in the local Church, the Archdiocese of Medan,” he says.

The shrine was the culmination of his missionary journey: realizing that the population of Medan lacked adequate education, Father James first started an educational project and rebuilt a primary school called “Karya Dharma” (“Works of Charity”) to educate children from economically disadvantaged families.

“People appreciated the initiative and were very cooperative,” he claims.

But he did face obstacles along the way: a project designed to promote the self-sufficiency of development and subsistence for a Tamil community still living on the charity of Dutch missionaries was met with hostility from the local community. “My actual vocation and my life as a missionary were threatened. But the Lord saved me,” he recalls.

The miracle finally came about through the intercession of the Mother of God: “I had a vision to spread the devotion of Mary here as she had shown herself in Vailankanni in Tamil Nadu for more than three centuries, attracting people from all walks of life and helping them to know her son Jesus. I reflected that a shrine would attract many pilgrims from all walks of life and help them to encounter God. At the same time, a shrine reminds pilgrims that they are all children of the one God. It teaches them to respect and love one another as brothers and sisters because they are all children of the same Heavenly Father.”

With this idea in his heart, the missionary began the project, supported by the archdiocese, to build a Marian shrine. “The generosity of thousands of donors was impressive. In the five years it took to build (2000-2005), the cost ended up exceeding four billion rupees (about US$500,000).”

The former Archbishop of Medan, Alfredo Gonti Pius Batubara, another Capuchin, admits that “Father James brought his life and spiritual energy and work to our archdiocese. And we thank him for the erection of the Marian Shrine Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni in Medan.”

Writer and confrere Father Ignatius Jesudasan, writes: “The Marian Shrine is the culmination of Father James’ missionary work in Indonesia. The architectural design reflects the contemplation of Saint Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises on the Mystery of the Incarnation. Here, as in medieval cathedrals, artistically represented by paintings and statues. The shrine combines pastoral use as a community hall, on the basement floor; worship and adoration on the middle floor; and artistic contemplation of historical-religious mysteries on the top floor. As the shrine attracts pilgrims of all faiths, the work contributes to Indonesia’s religious-cultural diversity and tourism. This place has become a blessing for many people.”

And the Indonesian Jesuit Father Sindhunata writes: “The shrine is a place where heaven and earth meet, where the divine and the human embrace, where God meets His people, regardless of ethnicity, creed or language.”

Source: Agenzia Fides