The faithful gather at the site of Father Arul Das’ death in the Jamboni jungle on Sept. 2, 2024. / Credit: Anto Akkara
Bangalore, India, Sep 10, 2024 / 11:15 am (CNA).
More than 4,000 Catholics on Sept. 2 assembled in the remote Jamboni jungle to mark the 25-year observance of the death of 33-year-old Father Arul Das of the Balasore Diocese, who was shot and pierced with arrows in his thatched chapel-house during the early hours of Sept. 2, 1999.
“Father Arul very closely followed the life of Jesus. Like Jesus as a good shepherd, Father Arul too tried to be a good shepherd for the people of this locality,” said Balasore Bishop Varghese Thottamkara in his sermon at the jubilee Mass.
Along with the bishop, over 50 priests and hundreds of nuns from different parts of the sprawling diocese and beyond were present at the celebration at which the clergyman was hailed as a martyr.
Thousands gather at the site of Father Arul Das’s death in the Jamboni jungle on Sept. 2, 2024. Credit: Anto Akkara
“Father Arul was a priest of Christ. He came to serve the faithful of Balasore, especially of the Ho tribe people,” Thottamkara said.
“Through his life-giving witness he gives the best example for us. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” the prelate added.
“While only 18 Ho families had embraced Christian faith in Jamboni at the death of Father Arul in 1999, the number has swelled to over 400 in Jamboni mission area now,” Father Varghese Puthumattam, who has compiled the biography of the missionary, told CNA.
Arul became involved with the Ho tribals in the jungle region when he was assigned as a deacon for pastoral duty at the challenging mission. Even a quarter-century later, the outpost lacks electricity and proper roads.
After his ordination in 1993, he was posted in the area and went to neighboring Jharkhand to learn the Ho language. The priest launched full-fledged work among the tribe, walking through the jungles without motorable roads to reach out to locals, many of them illiterate.
“We had to carry even bicycles on the shoulders to cross rocky and slushy terrains and streams,” Puthumattam remembered, recounting the challenging mission work undertaken with Arul.
While camping in his hut church at the remote Jamboni village, Arul was killed by a gang led by Hindu fundamentalist Dara Singh when the latter was on the run after having committed a triple murder in January 1999.
“Christian faith has taken deep roots among our people because of the martyrdom of Father Arul,” Durga Singh Godsara told CNA. Godsara is a catechist and was one of the first converts that Arul helped lead to the Church.
After Arul was killed, Godsara recounted what one of his fellow converts told him: “I will give up as it is dangerous and they would kill us too.”
“But I told him we have to die for the faith our guru [master] has taught us. Later I prayed with him; he got healed and he went to live 20 more years,” Godsara said.
“Our people have deep faith in the healing power of Father Arul that they bring the sick to this spot and get instant healing,” he added.
“We routinely hear ‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.’ It has been literally fulfilled in Jamboni,” Sister Elizabeth Rani told CNA.
“I came here for the first anniversary in 2000. What an amazing development has taken place over the years with the thousands of Ho people embracing the Christian faith,” said Rani, who belongs to the Congregation of St Anne.
“‘Arul’ in our language [Tamil] means ‘blessing,’ and I am happy — he has indeed become a blessing to the Ho tribals,” the nun added.
“Our people were enthusiastic about the historic occasion,” Father Francis Xavier Singh, vicar of Holy Rosary Parish of Bagdapha that comprises the Jamboni area, told CNA.
“They worked voluntarily through the night to prepare the lunch for more than 4,000 people,” he added.
Thottamkara told CNA that there “is indeed a growing popular devotion to Father Arul.” The bishop noted that several miraculous healings have been reported by the Ho tribe.
“The diocese will set up committees to document and scrutinize these to decide how to take these up further,” Thottamkara said.
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Readings for Sunday, June 30, 2024: • Acts 12:1-11 • Psa 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 • 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18 • Matthew 16:13-19 One denied Christ after having been chosen by him. The other was […]
Father Luigi Paliq (left) and Father Gjon Gazulli were declared martyrs by Pope Francis on June 20, 2024. / Credit: Screen capture from aciprensa.com of photo courtesy of The Order of Friars Minor, Episcopal Conference of Albania
The Vatican ambassador to Colombo, Archbishop Brian Udaigwe (third from left) and Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith (fourth from left) take part in a remembrance service during the fifth anniversary of the Easter Sunday suicide attacks at St. Anthony Church in Colombo on April 21, 2024. / Credit: ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 16:05 pm (CNA).
More than 50,000 Catholics have asked the Church in Sri Lanka to recognize as martyrs the 171 victims of the 2019 Easter massacre in the island nation.
On April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, eight suicide bombers attacked two Catholic churches, a Protestant church, and three luxury hotels, killing 269 people and leaving more than 500 injured.
Of the victims, 171 were Catholic faithful who were attending Mass at St. Sebastian and St. Anthony Churches in Colombo, the capital of the Asian country.
Five years after the tragedy, on Sunday, April 21, the local Church announced that it will begin the procedures to recognize the martyrdom of the 171 Catholics, who were remembered with various initiatives, including a petition with more than 50,000 signatures that was presented to the archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith.
The Archdiocese of Colombo will now send an official request to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to proceed with the opening of the diocesan phase of the beatification cause.
“The collection of signatures and raising awareness among the faithful has been underway since the beginning of Lent. Among the people there is full awareness of the gift of faith of those innocent people, murdered in the church while celebrating the resurrection of Christ,” Father Jude Chrysantha Fernando, director of the archdiocese’s communications office, told the Vatican news agency Fides from Colombo.
The priest said that on Sunday “there was a large participation of the faithful in the celebrations: in the morning memorial Masses were held in all churches and a special ceremony was held in the presence of Cardinal Ranjith at St. Anthony Church in Colombo” as well as with other religious leaders and civil authorities.
In Colombo thousands of people observed “a solemn two-minute moment of silence, which was also observed in churches across the country, to honor and remember those who lost their lives” on Easter 2019.
“It was a moment of great spiritual intensity for the Catholic community of Sri Lanka: The memory of these ‘heroes of the faith’ is alive and a source of inspiration for many,” Fernando told Fides.
In the Mass held at St. Anthony Church, Ranjith noted that the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has been asking for justice for five years and demanding that an international and independent investigation into the 2019 attacks be carried out.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province in Nigeria. / Credit: Bishop Emmanuel Badejo
Ado Ekiti, Nigeria, Feb 12, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).
Catholic bishops in Nigeria’s Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province (IEP) are alarmed by the recurrent a… […]
Seminarians at Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Nigeria’s Kaduna state where four students were kidnapped and one, Michael Nnadi, was killed in 2020. / Credit: Good Shepherd Major Seminary Kaduna/ Facebook
ACI Africa, Jan 26, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).
Last year, 2023, was a difficult year for Brother Peter Olarewaju, a postulant at the Benedictine monastery in Nigeria’s Ilorin Diocese who was kidnapped alongside two others at the monastery. Olarewaju underwent different kinds of torture and witnessed the murder of his companion, Brother Godwin Eze.
After his release, Olarewaju said his kidnapping was a blessing, as it had strengthened his faith. He even said that he is now prepared to die for his faith.
“I am prepared to die a martyr in this dangerous country. I am ready any moment to die for Jesus. I feel this very strongly,” Olarewaju said in an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Nov. 26, 2023, days after he was set free by suspected Fulani kidnappers.
The late Brother Godwin Eze who was kidnapped from the Benedictine monastery in Nigeria’s Ilorin Diocese and murdered by his kidnappers in October 2023. Credit: Benedictine monastery, Eruku
The monk’s testimony is not an isolated case in Nigeria, where kidnapping from seminaries, monasteries, and other places of religious formation has been on the rise. While some victims of the kidnappings have been killed, those who survived the ordeal have shared that they have come back stronger — and ready to die for their faith.
Seminarian Melchior Maharini, a Tanzanian who was kidnapped alongside a priest from the Missionaries of Africa community in the Diocese of Minna in August 2023, said the suffering he endured during the three weeks he was held captive strengthened his faith. “I felt my faith grow stronger. I accepted my situation and surrendered everything to God,” he told ACI Africa on Sept. 1, 2023.
Father Paul Sanogo (left) and Seminarian Melchior Maharini (right) were kidnapped from their community of Missionaries of Africa in Nigeria’s Diocese of Minna. Credit: Vatican Media
Many other seminarians in Nigeria have been kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, Fulani herdsmen, and other bandit groups operating in Africa’s most populous nation.
In August 2023, seminarian David Igba told ACI Africa that he stared death in the face when a car in which he was traveling on his way to the market in Makurdi was sprayed with bullets by Fulani herdsmen.
Seminarian Na’aman Danlami died when the Fulanis attacked St. Raphael Fadan Kamantan Parish on the night of Sept. 7, 2023. Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need
In September 2023, seminarian Na’aman Danlami was burned alive in a botched kidnapping incident in the Diocese of Kafanchan. A few days earlier, another seminarian, Ezekiel Nuhu, from the Archdiocese of Abuja, who had gone to spend his holidays in Southern Kaduna, was kidnapped.
Two years prior, in October 2021, Christ the King Major Seminary of Kafanchan Diocese was attacked and three seminarians were kidnapped.
Seminarian David Igba during a pastoral visit at Scared Heart Udei of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi. Credit: David Igba
In one attack that attracted global condemnation in 2020, seminarian Michael Nnadi was brutally murdered after he was kidnapped alongside three others from Good Shepherd Major Seminary in the Diocese of Kaduna. Those behind the kidnapping confessed that they killed Nnadi because he would not stop preaching to them, fearlessly calling them to conversion.
After Nnadi’s murder, his companions who survived the kidnapping proceeded to St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos in Nigeria’s Plateau state, where they courageously continued with their formation.
The tomb of seminarian Michael Nnadi, who was brutally murdered after he was kidnapped alongside three others from the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in the Catholic Diocese of Kaduna in 2020. Credit: Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, rector of a Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna
As Christian persecution rages in Nigeria, seminary instructors in the country have shared with ACI Africa that there is an emerging spirituality in Nigerian seminaries that many may find difficult to grasp: the spirituality of martyrdom.
They say that in Nigeria, those who embark on priestly formation are continuously being made to understand that their calling now entails being ready to defend the faith to the point of death. More than ever before, the seminarians are being reminded that they should be ready to face persecution, including the possibility of being kidnapped and even killed.
Father Peter Hassan, rector of St. Augustine Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Jos, Plateau state, said that seminaries, just like the wider Nigerian society, have come to terms with “the imminence of death” for being Christian.
Father Peter Hassan, rector of St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Nigeria, walks with an unnamed companion. Credit: Father Peter Hassan
“Nigerian Christians have been victims of violence of apocalyptic proportions for nearly half a century. I can say that we have learned to accept the reality of imminent death,” Hassan said in a Jan. 12 interview with ACI Africa.
He added: “Nevertheless, it is quite inspiring and comforting to see the many young men who are still ready to embrace a life that will certainly turn them into critically endangered species. Yet these same young men are willing to preach the gospel of peace and embrace the culture of dialogue for peaceful coexistence.”
Shortly after Nnadi’s kidnapping and killing, St. Augustine Major Seminary opened its doors to the three seminarians who survived the kidnapping.
Hassan told ACI Africa that the presence of the three former students of Good Shepherd Major Seminary was “a blessing” to the community of St. Augustine Major Seminary.
“Their presence in our seminary was a blessing to our seminarians, a wake-up call to the grim reality that not even the very young are spared by those mindless murderers,” Hassan said.
Back at Good Shepherd, seminarians have remained resilient, enrolling in large numbers even after the 2020 kidnapping and Nnadi’s murder.
Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna, Nigeria. Credit: Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, rector of a Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna
In an interview with ACI Africa, Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, the rector of Good Shepherd Major Seminary, said that instructors at the Catholic institution, which has a current enrollment of 265 seminarians, make it clear that being a priest in Nigeria presents the seminarians with the danger of being kidnapped or killed.
ACI Africa asked Sakaba whether or not the instructors discuss with the seminarians the risks they face, including that of being kidnapped, or even killed, to which the priest responded: “Yes, as formators, we have the duty to take our seminarians through practical experiences — both academic, spiritual, and physical experiences. We share this reality of persecution with them, but for them to understand, we connect the reality of Christian persecution in Nigeria to the experiences of Jesus. This way, we feel that it would be easier for them to not only have the strength to face what they are facing but to also see meaning in their suffering.”
“Suffering is only meaningful if it is linked with the pain of Jesus,” the priest said. “The prophet Isaiah reminds us that ‘by his wounds, we are healed.’ Jesus also teaches us that unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it will remain a single grain, but that it is only when it falls and dies that it yields a rich harvest. Teachings such as these are the ones that deepen our resilience in the face of persecution.”
Seminarians and their instructors at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Nigeria. Credit: Father Peter Hassan
Sakaba spoke of the joy of those who look forward to “going back to God in a holy way.”
“Whatever happens, we will all go back to God. How joyful it is to go back to God in a holy way, in a way of sacrifice.” he said. “This holiness is accepting this cross, this pain. Jesus accepted the pain of Calvary, and that led him to his resurrection. Persecution purifies the individual for them to become the finished product for God. I believe that these attacks are God’s project, and no human being can stop God’s work.”
However, the rector clarified that those who enroll at the seminary do not go out seeking danger.
“People here don’t go out putting themselves in situations of risk,” he said. “But when situations such as these happen, the teachings of Jesus and his persecution give us courage to face whatever may come our way.”
Sakaba said that although priestly formation in Nigeria is embracing the “spirituality of martyrdom,” persecution in the West African country presents “a difficult reality.”
“It is difficult to get used to pain. It is difficult to get used to the issues of death … to get familiar with death,” he said. “No one chooses to go into danger just because other people are suffering; it is not part of our nature. But in a situation where you seem not to have an alternative, the grace of God kicks in to strengthen you to face the particular situation.”
Sakaba said that since the 2020 attack at Good Shepherd Major Seminary, the institution has had an air of uncertainty. He said that some of the kidnappers who were arrested in the incident have been released, a situation he said has plunged the major seminary into “fear of the unknown.”
“It hasn’t been easy for us since the release,” Sabaka told ACI Africa. “The community was thrown into confusion because of the unknown. We don’t know what will happen next. We don’t know when they will come next or what they will do to us. We don’t know who will be taken next.”
Seminarians at St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria, during a Marian procession. Credit: Father Peter Hassan
In the face of that, however, Sabaka said the resilience of the seminary community has been admirable. “God has been supporting, encouraging, and leading us. His grace assisted us to continue to practice our faith,” he said.
The jihadist attacks, which continue unabated in communities surrounding the seminary, do not make the situation easier.
Church at the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna, Nigeria. Credit: Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, rector of Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna
“Every attack that happens outside our community reminds us of our own 2020 experience. We are shocked, and although we remain deeply wounded, we believe that God has been leading us,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
Pope Francis gives a blessing after he delivers his Angelus address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 26, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Dec 26, 2023 / 11:05 am (CNA).
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The faithful gather at the site of Father Arul Das’ death in the Jamboni jungle on Sept. 2, 2024. / Credit: Anto Akkara
