The last two Maltese Jesuits in India
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Two elderly priests are the last remnants of a century-old Maltese Jesuit mission among a poor community in India, who have lived in the South Asian country since the 1950s.
But the efforts of both priests and their friends and colleagues have paid off: the Jesuit province based in the town of Dumka continues to flourish thanks to vocations from within the local community. The Catholic community has tended to grow so rapidly that the city is now the seat of a diocese – with a cathedral, incidentally, dedicated to the patron saint of Malta, St. Paul.
The last two Maltese priests are Fr Paul Aquilina, who moved to Dumka in 1954, and Fr Joseph Gauci Sacco, who joined him three years later.
Dumka is located in the eastern state of Jharkhand, and is primarily home to the Santal people, an indigenous group of over 7 million. The Santals are India’s largest Scheduled Tribe, a nomination that identifies indigenous groups who are among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in the country.
Missionary activity among the Santali preceded the Maltese, but in 1920, the Jesuit province of Sicily – of which Malta was a part – joined the mission to help their overworked Belgian brothers.
Rev. Anton Debono was the first Maltese Jesuit to travel to the area in 1924, and since then over 70 Maltese Jesuits have worked in India. While many eventually returned to Malta, others stayed on, and India is their last resting place.
Rev. Gauci Sacco and Rev. Aquilina – who still speak Maltese, along with Santali – were visited by Malta’s High Commissioner to India Reuben Gauci, marking his second visit to Dumka. also in December 2020.
They were also visited by the Bishop of Dumka Julius Marandi as the community celebrated the arrival of the new year.
Gauci also visited the Carmelite Church in the village near Murguni: the church was built by another member of the Maltese mission, Fr Ġiljan Cachia.