By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Nov 5, 2023: Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, editor of Indian Currents, a leading Church publication in the country, has been transferred to Punjab as a manager of a school.
A November 5 message from Father Raphie Paliakara, the new leader of the Capuchin’s Krist Jyoti province, says Father Mathew will take charge as the guardian and manager of St Joseph’s School in Bhrariwal near Amritsar on November 30.
Father Mathew, 50, took over as the Indian Currents editor nine and a half years ago.
He is succeeded by Father Gaurav Joseph, a 33-year-old Capuchin priest and a native of Delhi.
Indian Currents was launched 35 years ago as a project under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India with Father John Vallamattam as its first editor. As the weekly ran into difficulties, the Capuchins took over the publication in 1998.
Catholic media persons and activist have received the news of Father Mathew’s transfer with shock and dismay.
Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national convener of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace based in Patna, Bihar, says although transfers are part of the life of a Catholic religious, the congregation could have avoided changing Father Mathew from the post at this time.
“From the role of an outspoken journalist to the confinement of a school?” she asks and adds, “We need bold and insightful journalism at the time of our country’s history.”
John Dayal, a veteran journalist who has been associated with Indian Currents since its inception, finds the transfer “very sudden. Didn’t have an inkling.”
Dayal says Father Mathew has achieved great heights as a professional editor. “Surely will miss your unique touch and guts at IC and in Catholic journalism. God bless you.”
Ignatius Gonsalves, president of the Indian Catholic Press Association, said he was “shocked, although I expected something of this sort.”
Father Mathew, Gonsalves adds, will continue as the association’s secretary and remain “a much valued, productive and prophetic member of our organization. That is my solace.”
Father Irudhaya Jothi, a columnist of Indian Currents, applauds Father Mathew “for being a leading and fearless voice of the Church and against the powers. I wish you all the very best for the new mission.”
Father Jothi, a Calcutta Jesuit, expressed the hope that the new editor will uphold the standards of Indian Currents.
Sister Sujata Jena from Bhubaneswar, says she is deeply grateful to Father Mathew “for adhering faithfully to convey the truth all through. May you continue to be the ‘voice of the voiceless’ wherever you may be.”