Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Diocese of Palayamkottai build a relationship of faith
Father Sengole Thomas Gnagnaraj receives offertory gifts from Luke and Elizabeth Geraci during a Sept. 4 Mass at St. John the Baptist Church in Dover. He is assisted by altar servers Olivia and Glenn Geraci, who are Luke and Elizabeth’s siblings. Father is associate pastor of the parishes of St. John the Baptist in Dover, St. Joseph in St. Leon, St. Martin in Yorkville and St. Paul in New Alsace. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
DOVER—The Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the Diocese of Palayamkottai at the southeastern tip of India may seem worlds apart.
But a holy missionary links them—St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of both local Churches.
More than 400 years ago, this Jesuit missionary helped establish the Church in the region around Palayamkottai. Some 175 years ago, he became the patron saint of the then-Diocese of Vincennes when Indiana was very much mission territory.
Since July, Father Sengole Thomas Gnagnaraj, a priest of the Palayamkottia Diocese, has brought the witness of St. Francis Xavier to the Batesville Deanery parishes of St. John the Baptist in Dover, St. Joseph in St. Leon, St. Martin in Yorkville and St. Paul in New Alsace.
In these faith communities, where he ministers as associate pastor, he is known as Father Thomas or Father Sengole.
“He [St. Francis Xavier] came to the street where my house is,” Father Thomas said. “He stood … with a bell in one hand and a cross in the other hand. He baptized my ancestors. We have a small church in memory of St. Francis Xavier right where he stood.”
Father Thomas has come to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to minister and serve as a mentor for seminarians from his home diocese who receive their priestly formation at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad.
The Palayamkottai Diocese started sending seminarians there in 2005 when its current chancellor, Father Jamel James, was doing graduate studies in Chicago.
Since that time, Saint Meinrad has provided scholarships for the educational expenses of the seminarians. More recently, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis has entered into a relationship with the Indian diocese.
The Church in central and southern Indiana provides the seminarians with a stipend, health insurance and summer ministry assignments at archdiocesan parishes.
Once they are ordained, the Indian priests will minister in the archdiocese for five years before returning to their home diocese.
One of the seminarians is named after St. Francis Xavier.
“I don’t feel away from my home,” said seminarian Xavier Raj Yeusudason, who ministered last summer at St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis. “I feel that there’s a home for me in the United States. In some way, I feel united to this archdiocese. I have a relationship with it that makes me feel very comfortable and happy.”
Although Father Thomas and Yeusudason have close connections to the Jesuit missionary who started the Church in their home diocese, they view their role differently in central and southern Indiana.
“I am happy to share my own faith with all of the parishioners here,” Father Thomas said. “I don’t [see] myself as a missionary. They don’t need that. There’s no need for evangelization.
“But there’s a need for living the Gospel message together and sharing the faith. That’s the meaning that I give to my presence here in the U.S.”
Joan Brewer, a member of St. John the Baptist Parish, is one of those people who shares that approach with Father Thomas.
Last year, Brewer taught religious education in her parish to seventh and eighth graders, and explained to them how the Apostle St. Thomas was an early evangelist in India.
“When Father Thomas came, he talked to us about St. Thomas and St. Francis Xavier,” Brewer said. “It put it all into perspective for us. I know that my seventh and eighth graders are sitting there thinking, ‘Oh yeah. That’s what we were talking about.’ It’s really not that big of a world.”
She hopes that the dedication that Father Thomas has for his priestly ministry will nurture the faith of the youths of her parish.
“This man is willing to come all the way across the world to help us with our Catholic faith,” Brewer said. “Maybe we should consider [following his example]. We need to encourage that.”
Father Eric Johnson, archdiocesan vocations director, will be encouraging the faith and vocational discernment of the Palayamkottai seminarians at Saint Meinrad, effectively serving as their vocations director in their time at the seminary in the United States.
“It’s a good situation for us because it allows us to be involved in their formation,” Father Johnson said. “It also allows them to develop a sense of community with the archdiocese before they begin ministering here.”
Father Johnson also said that the relationship between the archdiocese and the Palayamkottai Diocese will benefit homegrown seminarians.
“It’s good for them to have some exposure to someone whose experience of the Church is very much like our own, and yet manifests itself in a very different culture,” he said. “It gives them the chance to have a broader experience of what the Church is beyond what they sense here.”
When Father James visited the archdiocese this summer, he spoke to The Criterion about the importance of giving seminarians from his home diocese the same broad perspective on the Church and the world.
“The whole world is becoming global now. The world is shrinking,” he said. “India, economically, is in close contact with the U.S. The whole trend right now is in bringing the world together.
“We have as much to learn from here in terms of how the Church is [organized], in terms of the way the Church has taken root and expresses itself.”
He said the involvement of lay Catholics in the Church’s ministry and in living out their faith in their daily lives is something that the Church in India could emulate.
“The formation of the laity to respond to the call as lay persons to live out their faith in an active way in the world [is important],” Father James said. “We don’t do as much in lay formation. I think that’s something that we could learn from.”
There is one aspect of the life of the Church in the U.S. that is emerging that makes it closer to the experience of the Church in India—priests ministering to multiple faith communities.
According to Father Thomas, in his home diocese, parishes in cities might have 3,000 to 6,000 households as members then have eight to 10 outlying village churches connected to it with
50 to 200 families each.
Organizing pastoral ministry to such a wide array of communities is something that he is learning in his time in the U.S.
“I’ve learned many things about that being with Father Scott [Nobbe],” said Father Thomas of his parishes’ pastor. “The office set-up, how we can effectively organize our own pastoral ministry to the people. That will definitely be of help to me when I go back to my diocese.”
Father Thomas was able to come to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis because the Diocese of Palayamkottai has such a large number of seminarians and priests. As a result, each priest is given time to spend outside the diocese in graduate studies or ministry if he wishes after he is ordained.
Father Thomas attributes the large number of priestly vocations not to anything particular in Indian culture, but to something that can be a universal aspect of the faith—family prayer.
“Back in my diocese, families have time for family prayer,” Father Thomas said. “My family had time for family prayer at 7 p.m. I remember my mom praying for vocations from my family, not particularly for me though. But that prayer has been answered.”
Now he is happy to minister in the United States, a country that helped the Church in India in the past and continues to do so.
“At one time, India needed missionaries from western countries,” Father Thomas said. “They came and built schools and hospitals, and many, many institutions for development. And it’s because of them that we have grown.
“We are obliged to help them because they helped us both financially and spiritually in many ways. In many ways, it’s a sign of gratitude to them because they helped us a lot.” †
