Indian Jesuits write a new story
Roland Meeuwsen works in the communications office of the Ignatian Network and with Jesuits of the Netherlands. He is a European colleague of Pat Coyle, who works in the communciations office in Dublin and he asked her to share the following story with the Irish Jesuit News readers, and those who visit the Irish Jesuit website.
They flew half a world away and came home with stories.
Earlier this year, our Regional Superior, Fr Marc Desmet SJ, set off for Ranchi, India, not as a pilgrim tourist but as a companion on a very particular journey: to walk once more with Fr Aurel Brys SJ, the last Jesuit missionary from the Low Countries region who has been closely connected to the mission in Ranchi for nearly six decades (see photo). After 59 years of service, Fr Aurel had been compelled by frail health to return to Belgium. This trip gave him the chance to go back one last time and say a proper and profoundly moving, goodbye.
Journalist and documentary-maker Leo De Bock joined the group and captured their encounters, memories and questions in a new film, The Last Missionary: Indian Jesuits Write a New Story » The documentary film on YouTube is available with subtitles in English, Spanish, German, French and Dutch (choose language in YouTube settings). The film does what good Jesuit ministry has always done — listens carefully and lets the people tell the story. It pairs Fr Aurel’s poignant farewell with a broader, hopeful portrait: a mission that is no longer a one-way export of clergy and ideas, but a locally rooted, evolving Jesuit presence shaped by Indian Jesuits and the communities they serve.
The delegation was a mix of experience and curiosity. Alongside Fr Marc and Fr Aurel were Bastiaan van Rooijen SJ and three students from our Leuven student residence. For the younger Jesuits and students, the visit was a priceless, lived classroom: a close-up look at how faith takes root in a culture very different from our own, how Jesuit ministry has learned from the people it serves, and how deep relationships with Adivasi communities have shaped both mission and community over decades.
Roland says viewers will recognize familiar themes in the film – sacrifice, faith, friendship,- but also something less obvious and more encouraging: The quiet passing of leadership and ownership from foreign missionaries to local church leaders, and the fruitfulness that follows when mission becomes mutual encounter rather than simple transmission.
Those who watch the film will see that the trip was more than a farewell tour. It was a living lesson for younger Jesuits and students about what it means to accompany, to learn, and to witness a faith that belongs to many hands and hearts. It reminded all who travelled of the long arc of Jesuit presence in Ranchi, rooted, transformed, and now flourishing in new, local forms. And for Fr Aurel, it was a chance to close a remarkable chapter surrounded by the people who were both the reason for, and the reward of, his 59 years of service.
