Fr Rudolf Schoch remembered on 100th birth anniversary

Father Rudolf Schoch remembered on 100th birth anniversary
- CAMIL PARKHE Sakal Times Sunday, 29 September 2013 - 02:15 PM IST
Tags: Father Rudolf Schoch, Jesuits, St Vincent's High School, Loyola High School

Pune: The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) paid rich tributes to the late Fr Rudolf Schoch, educationist and former principal St Vincent's High School and Loyola High School on his 100th birth centenary on Friday.

Fr Schoch, born in Basel, Switzerland on September 27, 1913, had taught thousands of students when he was a teacher and principal at various  Jesuit-run schools in Pune and Ahmednagar districts. He had served as a member of the Senate of the University of Pune and on the Maharashtra School Board for many years.

Fr Schoch played an important role in the foundation of  the Dnyanmata High School in Sangamner in Ahmednagar district in 1948 and the Loyola High School in Pune in 1960. He is especially remembered for introduction of  the German language in the University of Pune curriculum and in the founding of the Max Mueller Bhavan in the city.  

Recalling services of Fr Schoch,  Fr Bhausaheb Sansare, Head of the Pune Jesuit province, described the late educationist as a great visionary and excellent financial administrator.  “Fr Schoch guided thousands of his pupils and also moulded their characters. He lived a very simple life,”  Fr Sansare said. 

Schoch had joined the Society of Jesus, a congregation of Catholic priests, in 1932 and came to India in 1938. In Pune, he studied Marathi and Sanskrit and also taught at St Jude's High School in Dehu Road between 1946-48. 

He also translated some abhangs of  Sant Tukaram  into German. Fr Schoch died in Pune in 2001 at the age of 88.  

Anup Y Attavar, an ex-student of the St Vincent's High School said, “Fr Schoch was an institution by himself and motivated us students to excel. His commitment to high moral values helped him make gentlemen out of the boys.”

Ghogargaon – First MSFS mission in Nagpur diocese

Ghogargaon – First MSFS mission in Nagpur diocese

From 

Fr Gurien Jacquier of Ghogargaon   (Catholic Mission in Aurangabad diocese - 1892  onwards)

By Camil  Parkhe 

Published by SFS Publications, Bangalore

Till the middle of the 19th century, Christianity was almost non-existent in Central India. The Christians in this area were mainly the Irish, Goan and Tamil soldiers at the garrisons of the East India Company. The Goan priests of the Golcoda mission used to visit them occasionally.  

The MSFS or Fransalian congregation was founded by Fr Peter Marie-Mermier  (1862) in France on October 24, 1838 under the patronage of St Francis de Sales. The vast mission territory of Visakhapatnam in India was entrusted to the MSFS in 1845. Fr Mermier sent his best six men for the new mission. Fr Jacques Martin, Fr Joseph Lavorel, Fr Jean Marie Tissot, Fr Jean Thevenet, Bro Pierre Carton and Bro Sulpice Fontanel boarded the ship on June 8, 1845 and arrived at Pondicherry on September 8, 1845.

Visakhapatnam mission then included parts of the present day states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Maharashtra.  Its four mission centres were Visakhapatnam, Yanam, Kamptee and Aurangabad.

Many of the missionaries who came to India learned many Indian languages and some of them even wrote books in these languages. The Visakhapatanam mission was divided into two in 1887, forming the new diocese of Nagpur, with Alexis Riccaz (MSFS) as its first bishop. During the last 125 years, this Nagpur diocese was further bifurcated to form various dioceses including Nagpur (1887),  Amravati (1955) and Aurangabad (1978).  During these years, the Fransalians too have spread out to the other parts of India. This religious congregation today has five provinces in India, namely Visakhapatanam, South–West, North–East, Nagpur and Pune.¹

The first Fransalian missionaries, Fr Jean Thevnet and Fr Joseph Lavorerl, arrived in Central India in 1846. At that time, there were only three priests in the whole central India – Fr Murphy, Irish chaplain at Kamptee, his Tamil assistant Fr Emmanuel and Fr O’Driscoll, a military chaplain in Jalna.

            The Fransalian missionaries made several attempts to open mission centres in central India but they were unsuccessful. Fr Lavorel tried to work in Mandla in Madhya Pradesh. Fr Benistrand tried to work among the Kunbis and the Mangs in the Deccan and among the Kurkus in Vidarbha. An orphanage was also opened at Thana near Nagpur in 1865 but with limited success. ²

            The breakthrough came in 1892 when the first mission centre for the local people was opened at Ghogargaon in Aurangabad district.  There is an interesting story revealing how the seeds of Christianity were sowed in this region, now called Marathwada. 

            A mission among the Mahars had been opened by the Jesuits in neighbouring Ahmednagar district, on the other side of the Godavari River, in 1878. Other Jesuit mission centres followed at Kendal in 1879, Walan in 1889 and Sangamner in 1892. By that time, the number of the Catholic Mahars in Ahmednagar district had risen to 1,000 under Fr Marcel D’Souza, Fr Otto Weishaupt and Fr Kraig.

Some 16 miles from Kendal was Ghogargaon village, on the left side of the Godavari. It had half-a-dozen stone and brick houses, a 100 mud houses. Outside the village lived the Mahars, the Dalits who were one of the untouchable communities during those days. An orphaned young Mahar from Ghogargaon, Nathu Raphael Shingare, had married a girl from Walan. There he saw the Jesuit mission, became a Catholic and later a catechist of Fr Weishaupt. On his return to his village Ghogargaon in 1892, Nathu Raphael gave a glorious account of the Walan mission to his neighbours and relatives. The local people who were denied development and progress for generations were indeed impressed. They immediately sent a delegation to Walan with a request to the Jesuit fathers to start a mission center in Ghogargaon.

Walan parish priest, Fr Kraig, paid a visit to the village to see the situation there. As Ghogargaon then belonged to the Nagpur diocese, he informed the chaplain of Aurangabad, Fr Montagnoux, of the local people’s desire to become Christians. Fr Montagnoux forwarded the request to Nagpur. At that time, Nagpur had no bishop after the recent death of Bishop Riccaz. Thus, in October 1892, Fr Pelvat, Nagpur diocesan administrator, received a letter telling him that several people from the village of Ghogargaon were asking for a school and were desiring to become Christians.

           

Bishop Riccaz had wanted to open a mission centre among non-Christians. Fr Pelvat welcomed the proposal and appointed Fr Thomas Marian to open the first Catholic mission in the Moghulai.

References:

1) Fransalians, website of the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales (MSFS)

2) Fr Francis Moget (MSFS), “The Missionaries of St Francis de Sales of Annecy’, SFS Publications, Vinayalaya, Bangalore, Karnataka 560 055 (1985). Distributors: Asian Trading Corporation, 150, Brigade Road, Bangalore- 560 025 (pages 268-260)