Jesuits look back on 150 years of Bengal Mission

(November 28, 2009) Belgian Jesuits are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the establishment of their Bengal mission in Eastern India. The order has had a big impact on lives in the region through education, literary contributions and a translation of the Bible into Bengali. Father Andre Bruylants, 83, former headmaster of the Jesuit-run St. Xavier’s College in Kolkata, has been working in the mission for 60 years. He is one of seven remaining Belgian Jesuits in the religious society’s Calcutta province. Jesuit teachers had educated thousands of people and become icons of Catholic education in the region, he says. Others have influenced the region’s socio-cultural leaders through scholarly interreligious exchanges, and reached out to Indians through the study of Hindu scriptures and engagement with Hindu intellectuals. Jesuits have influenced literary thinking through publishing and translating Western Christian classics into Bengali, and also helped locals use their own language in worship. Father Christian Mignon, 85, came to the mission at the age of 25. He was to make a unique contribution to religious life in Bengal, translating the Bible and liturgical texts into Bengali over 40 years. Initially the Jesuits’ focus was on the Chotanagpur area, in the present state of Jharkhand. This was where Jesuit Father Constant Lievens (1856-1893), whom the tribal Church reveres as the "apostle of Chotanagpur," had worked to restore tribal dignity. By 1869 the Jesuits were entrusted with the Bengal mission, at the time consisting of the present Indian states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.