(April 13, 2012) Nepal welcomed its first tribal Oraon priest on Wednesday with the
ordination Fr. Promod Toppo. Apostolic Vicar of Nepal Bishop Anthony Sharma ordained
the 34-year old priest at a solemn Mass at the Suryodaya High School complex in Damak
in which some two dozen priests concelebrated. The school complex includes the Immaculate
Conception Church and the convent of the St Joseph of Cluny Sisters. Fr Toppo, who
was born in Damak, said he was grateful for the opportunity to serve the community
in which he was raised. “As a rule you are never posted in your birthplace, [but]
I am not here to serve just my people. Jesus himself did not work only for the Jewish
people but for all. So I will go out and preach and do His ministerial work,” Fr.
Toppo added. Damak, in south-east Nepal is considered one of the oldest parishes
in the Himalayan nation. Located near the country’s tea plantations and Bhutanese
refugee camps, and just two hours from the Indian border, Damak parish has historically
been served by Indian missionaries that began arriving during the 1940s. The Oraon
are an Adivasi tribe originally from India but which settled in Nepal generations
ago. Sister Winifred Mukhia of the St Joseph of Cluny convent helped found Suryodaya
High school in 1986 and remembered Fr Toppo as a student at the school. Less than
a dozen ethnic Nepalese priests serve in the country, where a total of 69 priests,
including 36 Jesuits, are working.