The Hindu : A pioneer in 'practical' priesthood

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 30, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

A pioneer in 'practical' priesthood

By T. Ramavarman

THRISSUR DEC. 29. The contributions of Fr. Joseph Vadakken, who passed away on Saturday night, were unique in the history of Kerala. He was a pioneer in building up practical dialogue between the anti-exploitative contents of Marxism and Christianity. This, in fact, later blossomed into the concept of `Liberation theology' in the Kerala context which had remarkable articulators like the late Fr. Kappan and M.M. Thomas. This theory also inspired the renowned social activist, Bishop Paulose Mar Paulose, to assert that `Freedom is the God'.

No doubt, Fr. Vadakken had begun his social interventions as a leader of the controversial Anti-Communist Front which spearheaded the `Liberation struggle' against the first Communist Ministry of Kerala in 1957. But without any shades of political opportunism he could win laurels for being the first leader from the Church to eradicate the `untouchability' to the Communists in the State, and could get the nominee of his Kerala Thozhilali Party (KTP), B. Wellington, inducted into the second Communist Ministry in 1967.

In fact, Fr. Vadakken had said that his front was an anti-capitalist front, and the causes he had undertaken were those of the downtrodden, deprived and marginalised sections of society. His opposition was to the institutionalised Marxism and Church. He was more of a critic of Marxism, against the anti-democratic traits that were getting infiltrated into it and its aberrations. But in those days a form of deism had gained currency in that ideological school and anyone who had made even the slightest criticism against it was systematically pushed into the bandwagon of the `anti-Communist' lobby, ironically though, by the Communists themselves.

However, it was the nexus that the Church leadership of those days had developed with the reactionary elements in the State which was a crucial factor in the positioning of a priest like Fr. Vadakken at the heart of the `liberation struggle'.

Fr. Vadakken was probably the first person in Kerala to recognise the power of priesthood to mobilise people, and he could channelise that energy creatively to give a genuine political content to the interventions of the religion. He was definitely the first determined rebel priest of the State and his acts like conducting a holy mass at the Thekkinkadu Maidan defying the diocese leadership, as well as running of the publication, Thozhilali, upholding the causes of the workers and small farmers, leading their agitations, going to jail and allying with the Communists had sent shock waves in the well-entrenched fortresses of power of the Church.

Born on October 1, 1919, Joseph Vadakken lost his father Thoyakkavu Vadakken Ittikkuru and mother Kunjila Ittikkuru at a very early age, and he had to shoulder the responsibility of looking after the family when he had completed his seventh standard. He started his career as a teacher when he was only 14 and joined the training programme for priesthood after working as a teacher for about 12 years.

During his stint as a teacher, Fr. Vadakken had organised teachers, and participated in the Quit India Movement and other struggles of the freedom movement. He started the Thozhilali as a weekly even when he was undergoing the training of priesthood. Later, it was converted into a full-fledged daily on January 1, 1954.

Fr. Vadakken, who started his full-fledged priestly vocation in 1956, worked as assistant superior of Mariapuram Malabar Mission Brothers for nine years. Later, he was transferred as priest of the Kuriachira church.

After the fall of the first Ministry of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Fr. Vadakken had undertaken the cause of settler farmers. He expressed solidarity with the veteran Communist leader, the late A.K. Gopalan, who was holding a fast against eviction of the settler farmers. This association with AKG and later with EMS grew into a political alliance between his KTP and the coalition led by the two Communist parties.

Fr. Vadakken's associations and style of function had naturally embittered the Church authorities who suspended him from conducting the service. He was taken back later after eight years.

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