On February 27, 2006 the Passionist community in India celebrated the solemn conclusion of a year long festivities of its silver jubilee. It was an occasion to give thanks and to appreciate what the lord had accomplished and continue to do so in myriad ways. It was also a time to give thanks to so many Passionists and benefactors who had made the foundation possible. The celebration invited everyone to look to the future with much hope and renewed vigour and commitment.Now, it has provided yet another opportunity to know a little about our early history and the various attempts made to establish the congregation in India over the course of 150 years. The image that best captures for me these150 years of history is that of a thrilling movie with a long flashback. The flashback allows people to see in a better light the present situation. Moreover, it also helps one to appreciate the present better and hopefully will equip one to face the future.Talking about history Winston Churchill once observed: “History with its flickering lamp, stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passions of former days.”

In the short historical sketch presented partially by most Rev. Fr. Ottaviano D’ Egidle, C.P., our superior general, on the occasion of the closing ceremony of the silver jubilee celebrations, we can hear the echoes of the honest efforts of our erstwhile leaders to found the congregation in India. We get a glimpse of the many trails they traced on the sands of history to bring about a possible foundation. And, as we reconstruct those scenes, we hope that the prayer of our founder Paul of the Cross will continue to be fulfilled:” that they might become great workers in the lord’s Vineyard and sounding trumpets to proclaim to the entire world the infinite love of Jesus Christ, shown especially in his passion and Death.”

The long Wait for the opening of the door’s to India

Perhaps today we would be celebrating 150 years of Passionist presence in India if in 1849, Fr Antonio Testa of St James had agreed to the request that was made for a Passionist foundation in Bengal. He replied that in light of the foundation that had just been made in England, additional personnel were not available.

During the service in India of Bishop Leo Kierkels, C.P., first as Apostolic Delegate and then, following the independence of the country as Pro- Nuncio Apostolic, there was no move to found the Congregation in India except during the final years of the presence of Bishop Kierkels, One reason might be that the missions were the responsibility of a single province and these were oriented towards areas where language or other ties to the mother country existed that would facilitate their work.

In fact , the province of St Gabriel (Belgium), in 1930, undertook ministry in the then Belgian Congo; the St Paul of the cross (PAUL) and Holy Cross(CRUC) Province of the USA were involved in China; the Mother of Holy Hope (SPE-Holland) Province was directed toward Indonesia, even despite the fact that they could only enter in 1946; however, in the meantime they were involved in Bulgaria. The St Joseph (IOS-England) province ministered in Australia from 1884, the immaculate Heart of Mary (CORM-Italy) Province in Tanzania from 1933, and the Spanish speaking province were directed towards Latin America