Goa-based yogi priest to join Pope in
canonising Teresa
Panaji: Fr Joe Pereira, founder of Kripa Foundation that revolutionized the entire concept of
rehabilitation for chemical dependency and HIV/AIDS, and an Iyengar yoga proponent, received much
guidance from Mother Teresa and is among the few priests from India who will
be concelebrating Mother Teresa's historic canonization mass along with Pope
Francis in Rome, on Sunday.
He recalls the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council in 1971, when the Catholic Church was witnessing crisis and many new reforms were bringing in radical change among the clergy and lay people. At the time, Pereira was a young priest, hardly four years into the ministry of the priesthood.
He recalls the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council in 1971, when the Catholic Church was witnessing crisis and many new reforms were bringing in radical change among the clergy and lay people. At the time, Pereira was a young priest, hardly four years into the ministry of the priesthood.
Fr. Joe H. Pereira with Mother Teresa at the inauguration of Kripa Foundation Vasai 15th May 1994.
"Within four years of my ordination six of
my fellow priests quit priesthood and got married, celibacy being the major
problem facing clergy at that time. I, too, wished to quit priesthood since two
of my close colleagues committed suicide. But, providentially I met Mother
Teresa," he says.
Pereira asked her to pray over him. She told him she would not pray over a priest. Instead she held his hands and walked him into her chapel where she said a prayer with him.
"I broke down like a child. Mother said to me after the prayer 'Don't think of quitting...Jesus needs you...it may take a long time...even ten years!' That was truly prophetic, for exactly ten years later I got the inspiration to start Kripa Foundation," Pereira says.
Pereira asked her to pray over him. She told him she would not pray over a priest. Instead she held his hands and walked him into her chapel where she said a prayer with him.
"I broke down like a child. Mother said to me after the prayer 'Don't think of quitting...Jesus needs you...it may take a long time...even ten years!' That was truly prophetic, for exactly ten years later I got the inspiration to start Kripa Foundation," Pereira says.
Mother Teresa inaugurated Kripa Foundation in Vasai in 1994 and handed over the Boy's Town orphanage in Gangarampur, North 24 Parganas district, Kolkata, to Kripa Foundation. She also had the Italian Consul inaugurate the facility. "Her visits to Bhivandi, a town devastated by communal violence in 1984, and then to Dharavi in 1991, were deeply touching. She walked in the midst of groups of people while their houses were on fire, carrying helpless children and calling for peace and love amidst people of all communities," he recalls.
Her greatest gift to Pereira as a priest was her
sense of "total dependence on the loving providence of God. Even though
there was no food on some days, even for her own nuns, their faith and prayer
would miraculously make things happen and both nuns and inpatients would get
their 'daily bread'," he says.
Her guiding spirit were the words from the Bible
'As long as you did it to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to
me' and her daily prayer was 'Make me worthy Lord to serve fellow humans who
live and die in poverty and hunger; give them through our hands the daily bread
they need; and by your love and mercy grant me peace, Pereira says.
One of the largest NGOs working in the field of
rehabilitation of drug addicts, alcoholics and HIV/AIDS, with 65 facilities in
11 states and six countries, including a de-addiction centre at Anjuna, Kripa
Foundation has helped many turn their lives around and become productive
members of society.
NEWSDESK
Kripa is Deeply indebted to
Lisa Monteiro
Times of India Goa
For this news clip.
