Category Archives: Fr. Tom Cassidy

Last week we heard from Fr. Stephen Huffstetter with his first impressions of the Indian District. He and Fr. Heiner Wilmer, superior general, are there for a general visitation. Today Fr. Tom Cassidy writes about Fr. General’s arrival to Christu Dehon Nivas:

Despite the two hour delay in their arrival at Vijayawada all went well with the official welcome by the Christu Dehon Nivas community for Fr Heiner Wilmer, our superior general, Fr. Stephen Huffstetter, the general councilor responsible for India, and Fr. Thomas Vinod, our district superior. It also turned out to be a very long day for them. It began at 2:30 am in Mumbai with a long layover in Hyderabad due to their connecting flight’s late arrival. Fr. Heiner said he ended up having; (1) an American breakfast in Mumbai; (2) followed by a French breakfast at the Mumbai airport and finally (3) an Indian breakfast compliments of SpiceJet Airways for the delayed passengers in Hyderabad.

Fr. Steve joins in on the guitar

Given the “rank” of our visitors the always enthusiastic “hearty welcome to India” took on an even more festive mood, drums included! The guests were met at the front gate by all the fathers and brothers where the traditional garland was given to each and then we all marched in to the front entrance where the rest of the ceremony took place. This included: (1) a welcome song; (2) incensing of the guest; (3) “Tilaka,” marking their foreheads; (4) an offering of coconut milk, and (5) a word of welcome by the rector (Fr. Mariano).

With the conclusion of these important rituals our guests were shown to their rooms and then all headed to the dinning room for the midday meal. Neither Fr. Heiner nor Fr. Steve had much time to rest as they would start meeting the students (each allowed 15 minutes) starting at 3:00 pm and going until 6:00 pm with a half hour break at 4:30 pm.

Fr. Heiner was asked to be the main celebrant at Mass. Normally Mass is done in the cool of the morning but it was moved to 6:45 pm so that we would have the opportunity to celebrate it with our guests and give Fr. Heiner a chance to share his thoughts on the Gospel of the day. The plan was then to have Fr. Steve be the main celebrant the next day (The Feast of the Presentation and the conclusion of the year long celebration of Consecrated Life).

Following dinner there was a program for the evening for our honored guests and community. In the States SCJs would call this a “convivium.” As you can see in the photos, Fr. Steve even joined in on the guitar.

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Fr. Tom Cassidy, SCJ, writes from India:

Br. Mary Babu

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday the brothers [seminarians] take turns giving the homily. On all weekdays a brother will also give the introduction. It is a common practice in India for the celebrant to give a brief introduction about the day’s readings at the beginning of Mass. Yesterday Br. Mary Babu, SCJ (2^nd year) was responsible for the homily. Mary Babu is from Andhra Pradesh where long homilies are the. He and others claim it’s because the people have been influenced by Protestants and complain if the celebrant does not speak for an extended period. By “extended” I do mean between 30 to 60 minutes! That’s not the rule in other parts of India, certainly not in Kerala and Goa, two states where I’ve experienced Sunday parish liturgies. There it is more like 10 to 15 minutes.

Mary Babu is also one of the house barbers and the one I like to use. It’s very common in seminaries (as it was in my early seminary days) for one or more of the students to pick up the scissors and learn how to cut hair. Some become quite good at it and I would include Mary Babu in that camp — I even had one of the SCJs when I returned home last October comment on what a good hair cut I had received.

I suspect that Br. Thambi Joseph, SCJ, learned his electrical skills from his minor seminary days, probably passed on by one of the older students or maybe an SCJ. My own seminary skill that I’d claim came from my days at our college seminary (Kilroe Seminary in Honesdale, PA) is house painting. I became a pretty good trimmer, if I do say so myself.

All the students seem to be very good at ironing their own clothes. Washing clothes does not take much talent but there is certainly a skill to pressing shirts and pants. As I’ve noted in the past, the students do their washing by hand. The house does have one small washing machine that is used for certain house items. One of the perks of being the “house elder” is that one of the students is responsible for my room and laundry. Age garners respect in India!