By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald

Indian priest adapts to life in Hurley

HURLEY -- Any priest assigned to a new diocese has some adjustments to make. The priest who recently took up the position of temporary associate pastor for the Hurley-Montreal-Pence-Saxon cluster of parishes has some additional obstacles to overcome.

Getting a drivers license for the first time, learning to understand American rather than British English and adjusting to this sparsely populated diocese are just a few of them. Winter in the Lake Superior snow belt may prove to be another challenge.

Fr. Ephrem Pottamplackal (pronounced pott-am-PLACK-al) arrived on May 29, from Kerala, the most densely populated state in the densely populated country of India. Pottamplackal is a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (M.C.B.S). He of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Eastern-rite Catholic churches. (See sidebar.)

Pottamplackal said he was invited to come to the diocese by Bishop Raphael M. Fliss through his religious superior (the Very Rev. John Puthenpurayil, of the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament). "The people of Kerala are adventurous and I'm an example," Pottamplackal said.

His native Kerala is the Christian center of India, a country where the majority of people are Hindu or Muslim. According to Pottamplackal, the Christian population of India is less than two percent. About 78 percent of Indian Christians are Catholic. Kerala also has a very high literacy rate, which Pottamplackal said is mainly due to the efforts of Christian missionaries over the years.

Vocations to the priesthood and the religious life are abundant in Kerala. There are at least 50,000 priests and 150,000 sisters in Kerala at present, Pottamplackal said. Each year at least 2,500 boys join seminaries and 3,500 girls enter convents.

Pottamplackal cited some possible reasons for the large number of vocations. "As a whole, people in India are religious-minded people. They are really spiritual and God-fearing," he said. "Indians are really satisfied with the minimum -- minimum food, minimum dress."

The 52-year-old Pottamplackal is from a Catholic family and as a child he became very fond of a neighbor who was a priest. "He is the cause of my vocation," Pottamplackal said.

It took him a few years to realize his dream of entering a missionary seminary. His parents did not want him to enter too young (eighth grade) and they later objected to his leaving Kerala to attend a seminary. After trying out a local diocesan seminary in 10th grade, he was finally allowed to enter the M.S.B.S. seminary.

He was ordained in 1974 and spent the next year teaching at the minor seminary before going to northern India as a missionary teacher. Missionaries in India provide much needed services to the people through schools, dispensaries, hospitals and through construction projects such as roads, houses or water reservoirs, Pottamplackal said. His one-year assignment stretched to eight years.

Pottamplackal then spent four years at the seminary in Kerala as a professor of Latin and economics before returning to the missions for an additional seven years.

Pottamplackal knows several languages. His native language is Malayalam, one of India's 16 languages, and he learned Latin and Syriac in the seminary.

While working as a missionary, he obtained a bachelor of arts degree in Hindi, India's national language. "Hindi is necessary to work in the missions. People, especially the poor, know only Hindi," he said.

He also learned British English in school and when he returned from the missions, earned a master of arts degree in English literature and political science.

Pottamplackal likes working with Fr. Bob O'Connell, pastor of the cluster, and likes the Hurley area.

"The people are very nice, polite, loving and concerned of me," he said, adding, "I love this place because it is calm and quiet and nice place -- plenty of trees, greenery and grass. Plenty of animals and birds. Nature here is very lovable."

Pottamplackal is not here to bring India to Wisconsin, but to adapt to the culture here. He said the Mass itself should be attuned to the life and culture of the people.

"Life outside the church is a continuation of life in the church. ... Life itself is a Mass as it was for Christ. That's the substance of Syro-Malabar theology."

< Local Archives

© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001