KOCHI: “When I was in Class II at the Holy Family school at Kurumpanadom, the teacher asked if any of us wanted to become a priest,” says Mar Joseph Powathil, 79, the Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Changanacherry. “I raised my hand.” There was a religious atmosphere at home.
Prayers were important and the priests who visited the family were treated with due respect.
“I may have got the idea by seeing this,” says Powathil. When he was 13 his parents shifted him to the St Berchman’s boarding so that he would have more time to study. Once the bishop of Nellore, William Bouther, came for a visit and exhorted the students to serve in the missions and spread the message of God. “The Bishop’s speech influenced me. My desire to become a priest was rekindled.” But his parents were opposed to the idea.
Powathil was the eldest and his father, an agriculturist, was keen that his son study further. So Powathil carried on with his education.
He did his BA from St Berchman’s College, Changanacherry, and postgraduation in economics from the Jesuit-run Loyola College, Chennai. When he returned to Kurumpanadom, he sent an application to the principal of Loyola College, Fr Gordon, asking if he could join the Jesuits. Fr Gordon told Powathil he could join at Madurai. “When I told my father about my decision to become a priest, he fainted!,” says Powathil. “He was all the more unhappy that I would be going far away.” Eventually, thanks to an uncle, Scaria, who spoke to Bishop Mathew Kavukatt, Powathil joined the St Thomas seminary, at Changanacherry in June, 1953.
Sometime later there was an announcement in the seminary that Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, the secretary for the Congregation of the Oriental churches at the Vatican would be coming for a visit. The rector of the seminary, Fr Thomas Porukara, told Powathil to write an article on the Synod of Diamper, which was held in 1599. “That was the first time I got an idea of the history of the church and the domination of the Latin rite over the Syro Malabar one. I was upset. I felt it was injustice. I wrote stating that the Synod made changes which went against the traditional practices of the St Thomas Christians.” Thanks to the article Powathil developed a life-long desire to undo the injustice of the Synod of Diamper. “It was a turning point for me.” After he was ordained a priest on October 3, 1962, Powathil was appointed lecturer in economics at St Berchman’s College. He remembers having former chief minister Oommen Chandy as one of his students. “He was quiet in class. I remember that for the political science exam, nearly all the students failed but Oommen passed.” Thereafter, Powathil moved steadily up the hierarchy, from Auxiliary Bishop to Bishop and Archbishop of Changanacherry in 1985.
When he became the Archbishop, Powathil insisted that the Syro-Malabar church should follow the Divine Liturgy of the St Thomas Christians that was Latinised during the Synod of Diamper. This resulted in protests and demonstrations by the laity as well as the priests. “It was opposed tooth and nail by a few. I was unhappy that the people misunderstood me. The protests created an impression that the church was divided. A couple of newspapers even predicted a split in the church. That was indeed journalistic sensationalism!” Nevertheless Powathil is glad he has remained resolute like the person who made a big impact on him _ Pope John Paul II. He has fond memories of the pontiff.
Powathil was in Manila in 1995 where Pope John Paul II held a World Youth Day rally for four million people. Owing to jam-packed roads, the pontiff was an hour late for the ceremony. “The young people were shouting, ‘John Paul, we love you.’ But when he did not arrive, despite a long wait, they shouted, ‘John Paul, where are you?’ It was an unforgettable moment and I was glad I was present to see the Pope’s popularity at first hand.” Powathil remembers the late pontiff ’s sense of humour. Once they had been talking about a certain person in authority who was deciding matters for the Syro-Malabar church. Powathil said they were facing problems with the man. “But he is an Indian,” said the Pope in a jokingly. Powathil fell silent.
The Pope said, “But he is also a Latin.” Powathil recounts this with a smile in his study at the Archbishop’s House at Changanacherry, his voice overshadowed by the monsoon lashing the town on a Saturday afternoon.
At 79, though he uses a walking stick, Powathil leads an active life. Asked to sum up his experiences, the Archbishop says, “The Lord has led me to places where I never expected to be in.”
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