Candles In The Dark

After reading this column, you will see that Josef Meyr-Nusser might have lived in a different decade but the challenge he faced remains in various forms in many countries, including ours.

Have you heard of a place called South Tyrol? Today it is Italy’s second largest province. But for a long time it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the Empire collapsed, borders were redrawn and territories were reorganized. Austria ceded South Tyrol to Italy in 1919.

Nine years before this happened Josef was born in Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol. Five years after his birth, his father, who was in the army, died. So Josef was brought up by Maria, his mother, who had to look after the family farm and raise her six children all alone. With all her work, she attended Mass everyday and the entire family prayed the rosary daily.

Fr M.A. Joe Antony SJ

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If you want to see a candle and its light, you should have eyesight. You must be able to see. For the ‘candle’ for the first month of a new year, let me hold aloft the life of a man who helped tens of thousands of people see. He died on 21 November 2023, but the institutions he created with a far-reaching vision are continuing to help millions receive or recover their eyesight.

S.S. Badrinath (Sengamedu Srinivasa Badrinath) was born in Triplicane, a traditional, well-known area in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India on 24 February 1940.  His father, S. V. Srinivasa Rao, was an engineer in government service. His mother, Lakshmi Devi, was the daughter of an advocate in Nerur, Tamil Nadu.  An illness forced Badrinath to begin his school education a little late at the age of 7. He studied at P.S. High School, Mylapore, and Sri Ramakrishna Mission High School, Chennai. Sadly, when he was just 11, his mother died and eight years later his father too passed away.

Fr M.A. Joe Antony, SJ

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About two years before his ordination, this seminarian who belonged to the Holy Cross Congregation, was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis. He had to be in the hospital for months. After a year the doctors told him he had only two options. He could have surgery, which was risky and did not guarantee a cure. What do you think was the other option? Prayer.

He had a wise mentor, Fr Cornelius Hagerty, of the Holy Cross Congregation. He urged the gravely sick seminarian to pray to our Blessed Mother. “What she asks for and insists on she always gets. She has never failed anyone who went to her with faith and perseverance.” The seminarian started praying the Rosary which had been a part of his life when he grew up.

After a week of ardent prayer, the seminarian surprised the doctors by declaring he had been cured. They examined him and were astounded to find he had indeed been cured. So his priestly formation continued and he was ordained, along with his older brother, on 15 June 1941. “That day I gave my heart and soul in love to Mary,” he said. He was Fr. Patrick Peyton, who came to be known around the world as ‘The Rosary priest’.

FR M.A. Joe Antony SJ

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Her name is going to figure in the history of the Catholic Church. Years from now, they will say she was the first woman to vote in a Bishops Synod. She is a French nun, called Nathalie Becquart.

Born in Fontainebleau, France in 1969, Nathalie completed her graduate degree in Paris in 1992. She volunteered to do social work in Lebanon for a year. In 1995, when she was 26, she chose to become a Sister in the Congregation of Xavières, an order that practices Ignatian spirituality. She studied philosophy and theology at the Jesuit-run Centre Sèvres in Paris and sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.

Nathalie has a rich experience of working with youth. She started working for the Ignatian Youth Network, which is now called the Magis Network. “In France we collaborate a lot with the Jesuits. I have studied with the Jesuits and worked with them. I have many friends among them,” she said in an interview.

M.A. Joe Antony, SJ

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Did you read about the historic event that took place in a village called Markowa in Poland on 10 September 2023? For the first time in the history of the Catholic Church an entire family of nine was beatified on that day – the husband, the wife and their seven children. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification Mass.

Józef Ulma, the head of the family, was born in 1900 in Markowa. As a teenager, he was active in the Catholic Youth Association. In 1935 Józef married Wiktoria Niemczak who was also from Markowa. She was a talented amateur actress.  During their nine years of marriage, the couple had six children. Józef loved to take pictures of his wife and children and the photographs show the deep emotional bonds among the members of the family.

The Ulmas were deeply religious and were active members of their parish. Their family Bible had two verses underlined. The first one was “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” (Matthew 6:32). Then you see the title of chapter 10 of the Gospel of Luke underlined in red:“The Good Samaritan.” And next to it is a note with a single word: “Yes.”

M.A. Joe Antony, SJ

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Those who read this column regularly would know that I have in the past held up Little Brothers as shining candles in this dark, dreary world. The Little Brothers of Jesus are Catholic religious who choose to live – like Charles de Foucauld and his Master, Jesus of Nazareth – humble and hidden but heroic lives.

They come up with an occasional newsletter that contains extracts from the letters written by the Little Brothers, sharing experiences and views. Let me share with you what a Little Brother says in their latest newsletter.

A Brother, called simply Herve’, talks of the time he was sent to Cameroon, when he was 36 years old. Wherever they are sent the Brothers live with ordinary poor people. They have to work to earn a livelihood. Herve’ found a job in a training centre for farmers. The training centre trained young Christian farmers from the surrounding villages for two years. Most of the rural youth had not gone beyond primary school. This is why in Cameroon to call someone a villager was considered an insult. The centre gave them theoretical as well as practical training in agriculture, market gardening, and animal husbandry. It helped those youth gain dignity and respect.

Fr. M.A. Joe Antony, SJ

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“Your brain is pounding and every part of your body aches. You want to rise from the cold concrete sidewalk, but your attempts induce vertigo and you sink back to the ground. Crowds of people stream past you… but most stare straight ahead when they approach you, some even move away, afraid that something might happen if they get too close. Meanwhile the acid in your stomach causes you to groan. It has no food to break down. You never eat regular meals. Then an older man stops and asks your name. He has short, graying hair and kind, tired eyes. His name is Claude Paradis. Claude is a Catholic priest in the archdiocese of Montreal, Canada”.

This is how Peter Rajchert begins his article on this extraordinary Canadian priest in Messenger of St. Anthony (September 2022).

Fr. Claude understands homelessness – all the sufferings and indignities people who live on the streets face, because he has experienced them all.

Born and brought up in the Gaspé region of Canada, he worked in Cowansville as a nurse. Wanting to experience life in a big city, he came to Montreal as a young man. Unable to find a job for months, he was forced to live on the street. “Isolation and despair took hold of me,” he says. He became an alcoholic and a drug addict. In a city of more than a million people, Claude felt he was all alone and that he did not belong. He decided to commit suicide and attempted to end his life three times.

Doctors saved his life and decided to send him to a psychiatric institution. But after he was discharged, he roamed the streets of Montreal, as he had nowhere to go. One night he saw the glowing lights and the open doors of an old chapel, called Notre Dame de Lourdes (Our Lady of Lourdes). An encounter happened that night in the chapel. Claude entered and knelt down and asked God to give him a purpose to live or just end his life.

Our God is a God of life, isn’t he? So God gave him a purpose to live – to become a priest and serve his people. Claude joined the seminary and, after several years of priestly formation, was ordained a priest in 1997. After his ordination he could have asked to serve in a parish in the vast archdiocese of Montreal. But he did not. He joined Fr Emmett Johns, the founder of ‘Dans la Rue’ – a programme to reach out to homeless youth and give them a shelter.

Fr. M.A. Joe Antony, SJ

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I write this article while on retreat in Antigua Guatemala. Situated some 25 kms from Guatemala’s present capital city, at an altitude of about 1,500 metres above sea level, Antigua was the capital city between 1541 and 1776 until a powerful earthquake destroyed it. It is a beautiful quaint city with streets of cobblestones, and brightly painted colonial houses. The Volcan de Agua rises majestically over Antigua Guatemala; coffee is cultivated on the sides of the 4,000-metre volcano.

After the earthquake of 1773, some churches, monasteries, and other buildings were never rebuilt and nowadays their ruins became tourist attractions. Others became places of pilgrimages, and it is not a rare scene to see people walking on their knees along the naves of such churches. Guatemalans are a very devout people and there still exists a mixture of Mayan spirituality and Roman Catholicism. Against such a backdrop of natural and man-made beauty, it is not difficult to enter a contemplative retreat mode. I spend my time just observing the ever-changing scenery from the window of my room in the Posada de Belen Retreat House or praying either in the church of La Merced or the Escuela de Cristo.

Br Carmel Duca MC

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Who would have imagined that an 82-year old nun would do something like this? She was frail and tiny, weighing just 47 kg. In the early morning hours of 28 July 2012 Sr. Megan Rice and her two colleagues managed to cut barbed wire fences and enter what is called the Y-12 nuclear weapons production complex in Tennessee, U.S. It was here that the United States had stored all the depleted uranium stock, transported from Kazakhstan, after the fall of the Soviet Union. The nuclear weapons there were capable of destroying the world ten times over. The three anti-nuclear activists spray-painted the walls with anti-nuclear slogans, lit candles, prayed and sang, waiting to be arrested.

They had carried in their backpacks some bread, candles, four white roses, a copy of the Bible, a hammer and a statement that accused the U.S. government of harbouring weapons of mass destruction. When the first security guard arrived, Sr. Megan offered him some home-baked bread.

All the three were arrested, jailed and sentenced to almost three years in prison. In her testimony at the court, Megan said “I regret I didn’t do this 70 years ago.”

Fr Joe Antony SJ

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I remember meeting Mr. Rajmohan Gandhi more than 30 years ago, when he came down to Chennai to preside over the New Leader Awards function. He must have been in his late 50s then. Spending time with the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who has fully imbibed his values and ways, was an uplifting and inspiring experience.

Born on 7 August 1935 in New Delhi, Rajmohan Gandhi was the third son of Devdas Gandhi, who was the fourth and the youngest son of Mahatma Gandhi. Rajmohan’s mother, Lakshmi Gandhi, was the daughter of C. Rajagopalachari, a leading figure in India’s struggle for independence, who later became the second Governor General of India, after Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Like his father who was the Editor of Hindustan Times, Rajmohan took to writing and journalism. He has written 14 books.  His biography of his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire, received the Biennial Award from the Indian History Congress in 2007. His biography of his maternal grandfather, Rajagopalachari won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2002. It was called, Rajaji: A Life, a Biography of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878–1972).   Apart from Gandhiji and Rajagopalachari, he has written biographies of Ghaffar Khan and Vallabhbhai Patel.

Right from 1956 he has been associated with what was then called Moral Re-Armament, a movement that strives to promote mutual trust, reconciliation and democracy and to fight corruption and inequality. It is now called Initiatives of Change. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Rajmohan played a leading role in establishing Asia Plateau, the conference centre of Initiatives of Change in Panchgani, in the mountains of western India.

Fr Joe Antony SJ

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