Sundarbans Mission completes 150 years

By Irudhaya Jothi

Basanti, Oct 21, 2023: On October 22, the Catholic mission in the Sundarbans island of West Bengal will complete 150 years.

On that day in 1873, the mission opened its first parish, Basanti, by Jesuit Belgian missionary Father Edmund Delplace (1841-1927) and a professor at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata (then Calcutta).

Basanti island in the southern region of West Bengal is one of the deltaic Island in the Bay of Bengal, bounded by the Matla and Vidyadhari rivers.

Father Delplace with responsible for the pastoral care of Tamil and Bengali Catholics at St Joseph’s Chapel/St. Anthony’s in Market Street, Calcutta. He was then the professor at St Xavier’s College and headmaster of the newly started St Anthony’s Primary School.

“Some Baptist faithful came to request Father Delplace to accompany them in their faith as the Baptist leaders had left the place,” says Father Jeyaraj Velusamy, the rector of St. Xavier’s College, who is researching the Calcutta Jesuit contribution in nation building.

He continues, “Responding to their request, Father Delplace along with a catechist set out and reached inaccessible Basanti in the evening of October 22, 1873.”

Next day, a meeting was held with the heads of all families and on the following day, October 24, all the heads of the families unanimously agreed to accept the Catholic faith.”

Thus, was sown the first seed of the Catholic faith in the soil of Basanti village, in the remote and inaccessible Sundarbans area, Father Velusamy told Matters India.

Father Delplace was ordained a priest at St. Thomas Church at Middleton Row near Park Street on March 19, 1873.

“Truly, Father Delplace is the founder of the Catholic faith in South 24 Parganas,” Father Jeyaraj said.

The missionary work then used to be simple. Father Delplace used to visit a village and stay there for 2- 3 months, instruct and baptize the people in the Catholic faith, and then move on to another village where he was invited.

As the Bible says, “Stay there, eat and drink whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages” Luke 10:7.

Father Jeyaraj says the pioneer missionary was highly respected by people of all religions for his deep faith in God, his religiosity, his love and concern for people of all faiths as well as for his vast knowledge in many subjects.

The parish has produced the present Bishop of the Baruipur Diocese Shyamal Bose, twenty priests, and more than 50 women religious.

During 1873-1877, he established five missions –Basanti (1873), Khari (1874), Baidyapur (1875), Raghabpur (1876), Morapai (1877) – that later became the mother parishes for the present-day Baruipur diocese and South 24 Parganas.

Pope Paul VI created the diocese of Baruipur on March 12, 1978, carving it out of the archdiocese of Calcutta, and appointed Jesuit Father Linus Nirmal Gomes as its first prelate. He was ordained a bishop on November 19, 1977.

After Bishop Gomes retired, Father Salvadore Lobo became its second prelate on January 29, 1998.

Fater Shyamal Bose, a local priest of the diocese, was ordained coadjutor bishop on June 24, 2019, and became the bishop on Bishop Lobo’s retirement on May 4, 2020.

Today 12 women religious congregations, 9 men and two religious Brothers congregations along serve the diocese along with around 50 diocesan priests.

The Yugoslav Jesuit priests were invited to take charge of the 24 Parganas, known as the Sundarban Islands. They contributed to the growth and expansion of the mission in the islands.

Father Ante Gabric from Croatia was one of the well-known missionaries, who is now a Servant of God, the first in the four-stage canonization process.

The Belgian Jesuits focused mission works in the Chotanagpur area (now spread over Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha) which will also celebrate 150 years of the mission soon.