(Sept.22,2009): Church people and social workers in India are mourning the death
of a Belgian Jesuit missionary who used Gandhian methods to revolutionize village
life in India. 88-year-old Fr. Michael Anthony Windey, founder of the Village Reconstruction
Organization (VRO), died on Sept. 20 at Heverle in Belgium, where he had been undergoing
treatment for liver cancer since January. Sabien Arnaut, Fr. Windey's niece, told
UCA News from Belgium that her uncle's last wish was to return to India, but doctors
ruled it out, saying he would not survive a flight back. She said "He was very weak
and could barely walk. Though the doctors gave him only a few weeks to live, his sudden
death was unexpected." His funeral is scheduled for Sept. 26 in Belgium. Fr.Windey
was born in 1921, the fourth of 12 children. He joined the Jesuits in 1938, travelled
to India in 1946 and was ordained a priest in 1950. Until 1969 he worked in Ranchi,
eastern India, where he began social work in 1967 when a famine hit Bihar state. He
shifted to the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in 1969 to work among cyclone victims
and later set up VRO, following Mahatma Gandhi's call to reconstruct village life
as the way to bring about India's advancement. Fr. Windey "believed in the Gandhian
way of developing villages, and understood the Indian ethos and culture," said Fr.,Anthoniraj
Thumma, secretary of the ecumenical Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches. "He was
more Indian than Belgian, and we will miss him and his social service," he added. Jesuit
Father Peter Daniel, currently in charge of Jesuit projects in the state, said the
foreign missionary’s death had saddened his confreres in India. "We will hold a Mass
for Father Windey on the day of his funeral in Belgium," he told UCA News. The Andhra
Pradesh Jesuits also plan to conduct a 30th-day memorial service and to erect a memorial
at the VRO headquarters in Guntur. Father Daniel said donors have expressed their
willingness to support VRO's future projects.