Fr Paul Jesuraja answers the call

EIGHT months ago, Fr Paul Jesuraja, a Jesuit priest from southern India, was appointed parish priest of  St John The Evangelist Roman Catholic Church at Church Street, Diego Martin. St John’s, the lone church in the parish, was built in 1832. After 171 years, St John’s became the mother church with the addition of the Church Of Our Lady Mother of Mercy at River Estate, which was dedicated on December 12, 2003, by Archbishop Edward J Gilbert.

Monsignor Cuthbert Alexander, the former parish priest who is now studying in the United States, was responsible for the new church which took 20 years to become a reality.  “Mass used to be held at Mr River’s bungalow, then the junior secondary school, and after 20 years of pleading,” says Fr Jesuraja, “the corporation eventually gave us this piece of land, and construction took about one year.” Mass is said every Thursday at 6 pm and Sundays at 10 am, and Sunday School is also carried on at the new church. “All other sacraments — baptism, funerals, marriages — are carried on at the mother church.”

The parishioners need $250,000 in the first instance to complete the beautiful structure which seats about 300 worshippers. The list includes buffing of floors, erection of gates, paving of the yard, installation of a front awning, drainage facilities and completion of the unfinished fence.
He is solidly behind the first fund-raising dinner on November 5 at the Ambassador Hotel, and hopes that non-parishioners will give support. “We have to pay off debts first, then we can think of anything else like a fellowship hall. There is plenty of room for expansion, but no money so we have to get here and there.”

Fr Jesuraja, a priest for 34 years, has worked in India, Zimbabwe, the United States of America — where he completed a Doctorate in Theology at Berkeley University in California — and Carapichaima in Trinidad. He is one of five Jesuit priests stationed in Trinidad and Tobago. “Not one is Trinidadian,” he says. “There are three at St Theresa’s in Barataria where the Jesuits are starting the community, two are Guyanese, one of whom originally was from India and became Guyanese, the other is British, and the other priest from India is at Erin.  There are also two Guyanese seminarians studying at St John Vianney Regional Seminary, staying at St Theresa’s.” Who are the Jesuits?  The majority of these priests are engaged in education. Fr Jesuraja explains: “Our motto is to go to a place where nobody wants to go and take care of the most urgent needs of the church.
“We go to communities that the Holy Father assigns. The Pope can command. Actually, the Jesuit headquarters are in the Vatican. In the history of the church, different needs have arisen and certain people are trained to take care of that particular need. For example, Franciscans work to counteract worldly tastes, and Dominicans defend the faith.

“The Jesuits started in 1540 to spearhead counter-reformation. We are all serving God in different ways as there are 1,000 different ways and needs.  Mother Theresa of Calcutta chose the dying, destitute and abandoned children. Anybody reluctant to take up a challenge in society, we will do it.” The Jesuits fight against atheism, support devotions of the Sacred Heart, and through Christian Life communities bring families to pray. How did Fr Jesuraja choose this branch of the priesthood? Simply because the priests ran the high school located nearest to his village and then he moved on to the Jesuit College, so that when he thought of becoming a priest, the choice was Diocesan or Jesuit. “I chose Jesuit 48 years ago and never looked back.” 

The Jesuits have no particular type of dress, but happily wear whatever is the habit of the Diocesan clergy: “So here I am wearing the white shirtjacks like everybody else. In the US I wore the black collar and in India full white cassock. Jesuits do not have any distinctive dress. St Ignatius of Loyola, our founder, fought for this. “The institution’s formula means ‘sum and substance of our congregation,’ and the tenets are laid out in a very short page. Our hallmark is ‘obedience.’ Although chastity, poverty and obedience are common to all the religious, we do not ask why. There are times when I would be allowed to put forward my pros and cons on subjects such as transfers. The head of our organisation then says, ‘I have heard your arguments and I am asking you to go.’ And you go as that decision is coming from God through the superiors. Obedience to the Holy Father and Church is the basic thing.”

In the teaching tradition of the Jesuits, Fr Jesuraja teaches theology at St John Vianney twice per week, and is available to his parishioners on Mondays, Wednesday and Friday from 9 am to 1 pm. He is also manager of the two Roman Catholic Schools adjacent to the church. Except for the crime situation, the very affable priest is enjoying life in Trinidad.