A guiding light for Bangladesh's marginalized communities

Sister Salome Nanuar, CSC (Photo: Rock Ronald Rozario)

As a child Salome Nanuar assumed she would end up becoming a poor and marginalized tea estate worker like her parents.

She was born in 1971, the third of six children of an ethnic Kharia family, at Barmachhera village at Srimangal, a tea plantation hub in the Moulvibazar district of northeastern Bangladesh.

Nearly five decades on, Salome has become a Holy Cross nun, dedicating her life as a teacher, catechist and hostels, in the service of socio-economically downtrodden communities, including tea workers.

Sister Salome’s father died when she was at grade four in primary school.

Thanks to support from her two elder brothers and sister in-laws, all of them tea workers, she was able to continue her education.

The biggest support came from the local St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, the oldest and largest parish in predominantly tribal Sylhet Diocese, set up in 1950 by Holy Cross missionary priest Father Vincent Delevi.

Missionaries, martyrs and 500 years of faith in Bangladesh

Archbishop Moses M. Costa of Chittagong delivers a Mass during the annual Marian pilgrimage at Our Lady of Lourdes shrine in Diang in eastern Bangladesh in 2018. The Church will host a jubilee marking 500 years of Christianity in the country on Feb. 7-8 in the same city. (Photo by Stephan Uttom/ucanews.com)

For centuries the port of Chittagong, washed by the waters of the Karnaphuli River, has fascinated and attracted travellers, traders, kings, warriors, and preachers of various religions.

In 1517, the river brought Portuguese Catholic merchants to the port. The first group left after their business was done, but a second group that arrived in 1518 decided to stay in Chittagong and nearby Diang, setting up the first Christian settlements in erstwhile East Bengal (now Bangladesh).

"The Portuguese came mainly for business, but they also brought with them the faith in Christ. They developed the first community of Christians," Holy Cross Archbishop Moses M. Costa of Chittagong told ucanews.com.

Portuguese Jesuit priest Father Francesco Fernandez was the first Catholic missionary to set foot in Chittagong in 1598. Two Jesuit priests — Father Melchior de Fonseca and Father Andre Boves — and two Dominican priests followed his footsteps in 1599, and a band of Augustinian missionary priests turned up in the 1600s.

The Augustinians spearheaded the massive conversion of locals, mostly lower-caste Hindus from fishing community and port laborers, as well as slaves from various Indian states brought to Chittagong by merchant ships in 1622-1635.

By the middle of the 17th century, Catholics in Chittagong and neighboring areas stood at around 29,000.

Father Fonseca and Father Boves set up two churches in Diang and Chittagong in 1600, marking the first foothold of the Church in this part of the world.

Liberal and Reformist Pope Francis

Pope Francis (Photo: www.telegraph.co.uk)

Pope Francis, the supreme leader of world's 1.2 billion Catholic Christians, is visiting Bangladesh. Francis is the third pope to visit this land after Pope Paul VI on Nov. 26, 1970 and Pope John Paul on Nov. 19, 1986.

Pope Francis beholds a liberal worldview that includes everyone and excludes none.
A prolific change-maker, Pope Francis is determined to turn the Church "a guiding light and moral conscience" in an ultramodern and increasingly secular world.
  
On 13 March 2013, as he emerged as pope, he renounced traditional red papal mozetta, and worn a simple white cloak and a wooden cross. Thus, he sent out strong signals that he was there for change. 

The saint who means even more than just miracles

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A statue of St. Anthony of Padua at Panjora village in Gazipur, near Dhaka

I’ve just found time to write about the pilgrimage I went on at the start of February. Along with about 40,000 devotees, both Catholic and non-Catholic, I went to the shrine of St. Anthony of Padua at Nagari Church in Panjora, about 45 kms east of Dhaka.

I have been coming to it for longer than I can remember, ever since I was a small child.
Although St. Anthony’s feast day is June 13, this event is held in February when the weather is cooler and more comfortable for the pilgrims. In fact this year it was cold when we set out in the early morning.

Although the numbers were slightly down on other years – sometimes it has attracted more than 50,000 – this is still the largest Christian gathering in the country. I haven’t seen more than 5,000 Catholics at the Sacred Heart of Jesus celebration in June and the various Marian pilgrimages attract 10,000 people at most.

The devotion to St. Anthony is unique and incredible here. Many people in Bangladesh claim that their prayers were granted miraculously by the saint; he has helped them find lost valuables, conceive a child, get over an illness and more.

In fact, I remember one priest saying in jest, “it seems St. Anthony is more powerful than Jesus and Mary. They take a long time to fulfill people’s prayers but St. Anthony does it fast!”

This tradition of popular devotion to St. Anthony dates back over two centuries.

In the 1700s, the son of a wealthy Hindu was kidnapped by Mogh pirates. While in captivity he dreamed about St. Anthony. Then a Portuguese missioner priest came and rescued him.
Inspired by this, he converted to Christianity and the priest named him Dom (or ‘Prince’ in Portuguese) Anthony.

He started preaching in the Bhawal and Atharogram areas near Dhaka, which are still two of the oldest and largest Catholic settlements in the country. Dom Anthony also wrote various books and composed songs in praise of the saint. Those songs are still popular today.

Another local story from around the same time involves a statue of St. Anthony which miraculously disappeared and reappeared at a different place. A small chapel was built to commemorate it, not far from the existing church in Nagari.

On this year’s pilgrimage I was accompanied by foreign guest who said something that really made me think.

“This devotion is not inspired by miracles,” he said, “because I don’t believe that all the women who prayed to the saint for a child got pregnant. But still they come here and that means even more than a miracle.”

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