Making of the Encyclopaedia | Prof. George Menachery | Part 1

 

Making of the Encyclopaedia

George Menachery

One

Early during the eleven-day-long All-India Seminar  ‘The Church in India Today,’ Bangalore, May 1969, I was approached by Fr. Dr. Jacob Vellian and Fr. Dr. Xavier Koodappuzha, both then professors at the St. Thomas Apostolic Seminary of Kottayam,  with the request that I introduce a resolution at the final plenary session on the need for permitting pastors of different Indian rites to attend to the spiritual needs of their own fold scattered throughout the country and even abroad.

I was staying at the accommodation provided by the organizers at the St. John’s Medical College, which was to be inaugurated as a part of the National Seminar. The necessary two-hundred-odd participants’ signatures for eligibility to move the resolution had already been obtained. (There were 485 participants eligible to vote, including 2 cardinals, 14 archbishops, 47 bishops, 3 prefects apostolic, 4 exarchs ...)

This writer introduced the resolution at 7 p.m. on the 24th of May, the eve of the Pentecost. Another resolution was moved saying that this permission was unacceptable. The discussion “did go through a period of apprehension” is how the official printed report Ever Ancient Ever New describes what then took place. In fact the debate boisterously proceeded past midnight till 2. a. m.  the next day (sic)—with tiny breaks for supper (9. p.m.- which in the Seminar time-table was scheduled for 8 p. m.), ice cream (which the sisters at Dharmaram  had prepared for the Pentacostal Dinner the next day - 11.50 p. m.), and black coffee (there was nothing else available - 1 a. m.)— overrunning by six hours the allotted time. Finally a compromise resolution had to be moved by one of the seminar secretaries, Fr. Jonas Thaliath (afterwards made the bishop of Rajkot), which was accepted. “In the debate which preceded this, important people had said that the acceptance of the resolution would be an event of Pentecostal importance for the future of the Catholic Church in India. Great thanksgiving and rejoicing followed the acceptance of the resolution with a unanimous vote,” My Impressions of the All-India Seminar, N.C. Sargant, Anglican bishop of Mysore. The scene of Archbishop Benedict Mar Gregorios climbing upon the chair and clapping incessantly on the passing of the resolution is still in my memory.

Why I was chosen to move this historic resolution still remains a mystery to me. I had just turned 31 the previous month, on 2^nd April 1969, and was one of the youngest participants at the Seminar, and was practically an ignoramus as far as details of Indian Church history went. True, I was attending all the sessions, dressed in full suit and carrying a small typewriter in my hand - as people carry laptops today. I was making frequent interventions, interventions on various aspects relating to the future of the Church in India as called for by the topics discussed in different sessions, and in good English, they thought. And above all I was a layman from Trichur,  considered an impartial and neutral area with no axes of their own to grind. Maybe these were some of the reasons which prompted the organizers of the move to choose me as the mover of the resolution. The words of Msgr. Zacharias Vazhappilly, Vicar General of Trichur and Fr. Dr. Joseph Kannath, Founder Director of the POC might have guaranteed my “harmlessness”.

In the course of the tense hours of argumentation and controversy this writer needed some clarifications on certain aspects of Indian church history, to conclude the remarks on the resolution.

However when I sought enlightenment on some points in the history of the Church in India, it transpired to one’s disappointment and surprise that many august persons present whom I consulted did not have any clear idea about even the major developments in the history of Christianity in India. Then and there was conceived the idea of putting together a booklet on the subject for the use of individuals in the same plight. That was the first seed which three years later became the publication edited by me : The St. Thomas – Christian Encyclopaedia – of India.