By Filomena Saraswati Giese
Courtesy: www.indiancatholicmatters.org
St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara and St. Joseph Vaz
Why Keralites had St. Kuriakose made a Patron Saint at his Canonization?
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Why Indian-Sri Lankan St. Joseph Vaz was not honored as a Patron Saint and will never be so recognized as long as the Indian and Sri Lankan Bishops don’t want to ask the Pope to do so.
The Joseph Naik Vaz Institute in California is a group of devotees of Indian-Sri Lankan Saint Joseph Vaz (1651-1711) who was canonized by His Holiness, Pope Francis on January 15, 2015 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. We have a long history of working on his Beatification and Canonization. We worked consistently since 1978 by organizing devotions, novenas, public events, Petitions and Masses to show the Vatican and the various Popes during this time that there were Indian and Sri Lankan Catholics, as well as historians and theologians who felt that he should be beatified and canonized as a great Saint of the Universal Church.
According to Fr. Thomas Klosterkamp, O.M.I., the former Postulator of his Cause, our final Petition for his Canonization in 2014 was instrumental in proving the international devotion to him that Pope Francs asked for so that he could grant him a dispensation from the final miracle in his special case as a Founder of a Church in Asia and to overcome the long 300-year delays in getting action on his Cause. As far as the Sacred Congregation of the Saints was concerned, the Canonization could proceed only when the Pope had satisfied himself that there was sufficient historical and widespread devotion to St. Joseph Vaz as we were able to provide.
In November 2014, H.H. Pope Francis canonized nineteenth century St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara, C.M.I. of Kerala, India as the first male Catholic canonised Indian Catholic saint of Indian origin and a member of the Syro- Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic church. He was the co-founder and first Prior General of the first congregation for men in the Syro-Malabar Church, now known as the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (C.M.I.), and of a similar one for women, the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel (C.M.C.). He is a pioneer in many fields. At his Canonization, Pope Francis made him a Patron of the Press Industry, the media, literature, as well of congregations for having founded the first native congregations for men and women in Kerala. Thus, the Universal Catholic Church recognized him in a special way as a Catholic saint, founder of a religious Order, and social reformer.
On January 15, 2015, only a month after canonizing St. Kuriakose, Pope Francis canonized Saint Joseph Vaz. But he was not honored like St. Kuriakose had been as a Patron of his major achievements and apostolates. Due to an oversight, he was not selected to be made a Patron Saint of any of his major contributions to the Universal Church as a Founder of a Church in Asia, or for even a single one of his special apostolates like St. Kuriakose was.
St. Joseph Vaz is a fully native Indian, just like St. Kuriakose. He is descended from the Hindu family of Naik in Goa, and someone who bridges the cultures and spirituality of the Asian East and the Christian West. More than St. Kuriakose, St. Joseph Vaz is a recognized Apostle and Founder of the Church of Sri Lanka. He is the only canonized Saint of our modern Asia who is officially called an “Apostle” and the Founder of an entire Church in Asia and the New World. He also rescued the Church from extinction in Kanara, the south-western coast of Karnataka in India. He was recognized by the Hindus and Buddhists and the non-Christian sovereigns of Sri Lanka as an Indian “Sannyasi” because he lived the ideals of renunciation and turning away from the quest for political power joined to the quest to preach the Gospel. To acknowledge his Indian and Sri Lankan roots would be a very great symbol of the Church’s respect for the spiritual wisdom of the East, something that H.H. Pope St. John Paul II clearly alluded to in his homily at this great Asian Apostle’s Beatification in 1995.
Many of the faithful Devotees and Admirers of St. Joseph Vaz wish to respectfully bring to the attention of the Pope, the Vatican, and the Bishops of Sri Lanka, India, and especially of Asia that this dedicated group of lay activists requested His Holiness in 2021 to officially recognize this Saint’s work of mercy toward the abandoned smallpox victims during the smallpox epidemic in the Buddhist kingdom of Kandy in 1696. They sent a Petition to His Holiness for his recognition as a First Responder during the Covid pandemic when First Responders like St Joseph Vaz risked their lives from infection to go to the aid of infectious victims of an epidemic or pandemic.
Why St. Joseph Vaz was not made a Patron Saint of his apostolates
It should be noted that the Joseph Naik Vaz Institute sent that Petition not only to H.H. Pope Francis but also to the C.B.C. I who recommended that they should send it to the Sri Lankan Bishops (C.B.C.SL) as they felt that the Petition should go through that body of Sri Lankan Bishops. The Sri Lankan Bishops responded that they met and discussed the matter. First of all, they objected to the request that the name of St. Joseph Vaz should not remain just an expression of the cultural bias of the Portuguese and European missionaries and totally omit his ancestral family name of “Naik”. They were not in favor of modifying his official public name to reflect his ancestral origins and roots even though St. Joseph Vaz himself did not impose European last names, and European language and culture on their converts.
The Joseph Naik Vaz Institute also sent the Petition and asked for the support of the General of the Oratorian Congregation in Italy. St. Joseph Vaz had proposed and founded the branch of the Oratorians in Goa as a missionary society to work in Sri Lanka during the 140 years of Dutch persecution. As they received no support f for the idea and the Petition to the Pope from either body of Bishops, either Sri Lankan or Indian, there was no support for the candidacy of St. Joseph Vaz for Patron Saint as was received by St. Kuriakose from the branch of the Carmelite Order founded in Kerala by St. Kuriakose.
As happens in all Catholic churches and communities, the people follow the direction of the priests and Bishops when it comes to expressing our opinions about such matters. Without the entire lack of interest or support from the Latin
Rite Bishops and clergy, approval for this request for recognition of St. Joseph Vaz from the Pope and the Vatican failed from the outset. The Vatican acts on the interest and agreement by the Bishops for any such initiative, there has been little hope of getting support and collecting signatures support for the idea. Overall, the Keralite Bishops, Religious Orders, and their Syro-Malabar Catholic community is strongly behind any recognition and honors for their saints unlike the Latin-Rite Catholic community. The Bishops of India and Sri Lanka have both taken a very unbending attitude to our many attempts to engage them in efforts to take action to get this Patron Saint recognition of St. Joseph Vaz.
There is a very important reason why this situation cannot be easily changed. It is the circumstance that the voice and the wishes of the Laity are almost entirely ignored by the Vatican in this procedure of making a Patron Saint. It appears that the Vatican makes their decision to grant the designation of Patron Saint only if the Bishops of a country is in favor of such a decision. The voice of the laity is not a factor as is the case for a Beatification and Canonization, where the faithful have a strong say in the making of a saint. Therefore, our Petition has no hope of being acted on unless it is backed by the Bishops of Sri Lanka, and perhaps also of the Bishops of India. We are now working. On re-formulating our Petition and collecting more signatures if possible to try to persuade H.H. Pope Francis to make some allowance for our difficult position, caught between our love for our Native Saint and the Bishops who lead the hierarchy of India and Sri Lanka.
Filomena Saraswati Giese is the Founder-PResident of the Joseph Naik Institute and is based in Berkeley, California.