From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Feb 12: Konkani-speaking Jesuit priest from Shirva, Udupi, Fr Joseph Benedict Mathias, formally assumed charge as the new Rector of Bengaluru’s St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary at a solemn Eucharistic celebration at the Seminary chapel on Wednesday night.

The letter of appointment of the new Rector, who is commonly known as Fr Joe Mathias by his associates, friends and acquaintences, by Vatican’s highest ecclesial body, Congregation for Evangelisation of Religious Peoples, was read out during the Eucharistic Mass with Bengaluru Archdiocese’s Archbishop Dr Bernard Moras as the main celebrant and a dozen Bishops, who are members of the Board of Directors of the Seminary, and scores of priests and nuns were among those who attended.

Archbishop Moras, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Seminary and the Karnataka Region Catholic Bishops’ Council (KRCBC), congratulated Fr Joe Mathias and offered a shawl and garland to the newly appointed Rector as also to Fr Stanislaus, who had served as Acting Rector of the Seminary.

Fr Joe Mathias is filling up the vacancy caused by the brutal murder of Fr K J Thomas, the then Rector, in the small hours of the Easter feast on March 2013.

Among the Bishops, who concelebrated the Eucharistic Mass along with Archbishop Moras, are: Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza (Mangalore), Bishop Gerald Isaac Lobo (Udupi), Bishop Henry D’Souza (Bellary), Bishop Francis Serrao, SJ (Shimoga) and Bishop Peter Machado (Belgaum).

Fr Joe Mathias, who will be turning 68 on April 16, was serving as Director, Professor and Therapist at National Vocation Service Centre (NVSC) and Chief Editor of Asian Journal of Vocation and Formation (AJVF) in Pune.

Incidentally, it is significant to note that the two major ecclesial appointments as far as the Roman Catholic Church in Karnataka is concerned after Pope Francis, who is the first Jesuit to become the pontiff, are from the Society of Jesus.

The vacant post of Bishop of Shimoga following the appointment of Bishop Gerald Lobo as the prelate of the newly carved out Udupi Diocese was from among the Jesuits with Fr Francis Serrao, the then Provincial of the Society of Jesus in the Karnataka Province.

The vacant post of the Rector of the St Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Bengaluru is also from among the Jesuits with Fr Joe Mathias, the former Rector of the Papal Seminary in Pune.

Born in Shirva near Udupi on April 16, 1947 as the fifth among 12 children, eight sons and four daughters to late Fabian and Mary Mathias, Fr Joe Mathias has done his BA from Ranchi University and BPh (Philosophy) from Sacred Heart College, Shembaganur, Tamil Nadu, B. Th (Theology) from Vidya Jyothi College, Delhi, BCl (Canon Law) as well as MSc and Licentiate in Psychology from Gregorian University, Rome.

His immediate elder sister, Sr Fabiola is a nun in the Bethany Congregation.

The Golden Jubilee of religious life of both Fr Joseph Mathais and Sr Fabiola was celebrated with a thanksgiving mass at Our Lady of Health Church, Shirva on June 28, 2014 with Udupi diocese Bishop Dr Gerald Lobo as the main celebrant.

He had his primary and higher primary education in Don Bosco and St Mary’s Schools in Shirva. Having decided to join the Jesuit order and work as a missionary in the remote Ranchi Province, he went to the Jesuit Formation House of Gonzaga House at Mangalore from where he continued his studies from ninth up to PUC in St Aloysius High School and College.
Having confirmed in his vocation, he joined the Jesuit Novitiate at Sitagarh in Hazaribagh on June 28, 1964.

After completing two years long novitiate, he did juniorate at Mount St Joseph’s, Bangalore for one year and went back to Ranchi where he completed graduation in Arts at St. Xavier’s College. The next stage in the training for priesthood was the study of Philosophy which he did at the Sacred Heart College, Shembaganur, Tamil Nadu. followed by Theology at St Mary’s College, Kurseong in Darjeeling which was shifted to Delhi with the new name of VidyaJyothi. After his full training for priesthood, he was ordained a priest on May 11, 1974 and he took final vows on August 15, 1984.

Fr Joe Mathias has the rich professional and teaching experience of being the Professor of Pastoral Psychology from 1979 to 1994 besides being the Rector of the VidyaJyothi Jesuit Theologate in Delhi from 1988 to 1994, South Asian Assistancy Delegate for Jesuit Formation, New Delhi and Superior of the Jesuit Residence as Provincial of India at New Delhi from 1994 to 2000.

He was the Founder and Director of the Institute for Formators in Bangalore and continues to be on its staff, Rector of Papal Seminary at Pune from 2000 to 2004 and Visiting Professor of JnanaDeepaVidyapeeth (JDV), Pune, Vidyajyothi, Delhi and Mater Dei, Goa. He is also serving as the Director of NVSC, Pune and Secretary of CBCI’s National Office for Clergy and Religious from the year 2004.

He acquired experience in psychology by undergoing internship at Catholic Psychiatric Hospital, Philadelphia, USA and while serving as Moderator for General and Provincial Chapters of Religious Congregations of Men and Women in India and abroad.

Fr Joe Mathias is highly regarded as a scholar and pioneer in integral human formation for the clergy and the religious with a special emphasis on the formation of the priests and the religious with emotional and personality problems through counselling, which he terms as psycho-spiritual approach to priestly and religious formation. Promotion of vocations and improvement in the quality of spiritual leaders that is required for meeting the challenges of the modern world with a thrust on human formation, self-transformation, environment for integral formation, pastoral leadership, namely, the all-inclusive Integral Human Formation for clergy and religious are considered the focus of his ministry.

He has conducted and participated in many courses, seminars, workshops and retreats on various aspects such as Anthropology of Christian Vocation and Formation; Transformative, Leadership to Animate Community for Mission; Wholeness and Holiness for Refounding of Consecrated Life Today; Personality Integration for Wholeness and Holiness; Basic Skills in Counselling; New Pedagogy for Integral Formation; Psycho-Spiritual Integration of Sexuality in Celibate Life; Vocation Promotion; and Psycho-Spiritual Integration.