The
Jesuit presence in Afghanistan too has intriguing history with
its royal beginnings, abrupt disappearance and gradual
reappearance.
Fr Henry Heras, the renowned Bombay Jesuit historian,
gives us a brief, yet interesting, history of the Jesuits in
Afghanistan (The New Review, 1935,) January pp. 1-13, and
February pp. 2-16. It all began in 1581-82, when
Fr Antonio Montserrat, a Catalan Jesuit, accompanied the
Mogul King Akbar’s military expedition to Kabul. Then in 1602,
Brother Bento de Goes, a Portuguese Jesuit, starting
from Agra, made his way through Lahore, Peshawar, Jalalabad
and Kabul in search of a Christian kingdom called Cathay. The
account of his long and arduous journey is found in the work
of Fr Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit pioneer missionary in China.
In 1626, Fr Joseph de Castro, a friend of Emperor
Jehangir, spent some time with the imperial retinue in Kabul.
Fr Heras presents him ‘as perhaps the first preacher of the
Gospel of Christ in Kabul since the time of St. Thomas the
Apostle, who most likely announced Christ there during the
reign of Gondophares’. Fr Henry Roth, from Bavaria,
traveled through Afghanistan in 1653 to join the Mogul Mission
in India. Fr Heras states That ‘he entered Afghanistan through
the Herat frontier ….’ And ‘probably proceeded to Kandahar and
Kabul by the ordinary caravan route’. After spending nine
years in India, Fr Roth returned to Europe in 1662 along with
Fr Gruber, a Chinese missionary, passing through Afghanistan
once more.
Then in 1676, Fr Gregorio Roiz, a Portuguese Jesuit,
came from the Agra Mission to Afghanistan in the hope of
ministering to ancient Christians in Kafiristan. Fr Heras
notes that ‘in spite of the failure of Fr Roiz’s
mission, and of his ascertaining the real nature of the
religion professed by the Kafirs (Hinduism), the idea of there
being ancient Christias in that part of the Afghan country
still moved the zeal of Jesuits in after years.’ In 1700,
Fr Antonio Magalhaes, a Portuguese Jesuit, was at Kabul
for a short period to minister to the needs of the Christians
in the retinue of Prince Muazzam, the son of Emperor Aurangzeb.
Between 1752 and 1759, twice a year, one of the Jesuit Fathers
from the Agra Mission visited the Christian soldiers in Kabul
and Kandahar. There was a long lull of Jesuit presence in
Afghanistan till the 1930s, when Fr Heras visited Afghanistan.
His enlightening study on the Jesuits in Afghanistan opens for
us a window into the presence and ministry of the early
Jesuits in Afghanistan.
A new milestone in the history of the Jesuit presence in
Afghanistan began when Fr Antony Santiago and Br
Noel Oliver landed in Kabul on 28 April ’05. They
proceeded to Heart on 6 May to set up base. They spent a 6year
learning the language and culture of the land, and
establishing contacts with International NGOs and local
authorities. In August 2005, Fr P. S. Amalraj helped
officially register the Jesuit outreach under the banner of
JRS. On 17 July ’06, Fr Stan Fernandes joined Fr
Santiago and Br Noel, and on 22 August, Fr Jerome Sequeira
and Sch. Anil KumarPudota arrived in
Afghanistan to make a Jesuit community of five at Herat!
Fr Aloysius Fonseca SJ (1934 – 2004) who came to this
land to explore the possibilities of reaching out to the
strife-stricken,, and war-ravaged Afghanistan. She was called
to his eternal reward on 8 Feb ’04. Buried at the British
Cemetery, Kabul, he remains for us a symbol of Jesuit
commitment to the Afghanistan Outreach, inspiring us to serve
in all things with love and hope!
Events
The
Jesuit presence in Afghanistan too has intriguing history with
its royal beginnings, abrupt disappearance and gradual
reappearance.