by Cathy Chesley, Photography by Sarah Jane von Haack

“Good parents give their children roots and wings,” observed Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine, “roots to know where their home is and wings, so they can fly away and exercise what’s been taught them.” Dr. Salk apparently knew a lot, not only about diseases, but about families. And if he were to meet Father William Kaliyadan, a La Salette Missionary and the Pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Lebanon, Salk would recognize a bright example of his wisdom.

Father William’s roots run deep in his native India, in his family and in his Catholic faith. As a missionary priest, a scholar, an athlete, and a world traveler, his wings have brought him across the ocean to serve the people of Lebanon, New Hampshire. His journey has also brought him a deep appreciation of the universality of Christ’s Church.

 

William Kaliyadan grew up in a large family, in the state of Kerala in southern India where his brothers still operate a lumber and sawmill business. The Kaliyadan family traces its lineage from some of the earliest Brahmins christened by St. Thomas in the Paravoor region of India in 52 A.D. Father William chuckles that he was “religiously polluted” from the start, with two uncles and two cousins ordained priests and seven aunts vowed as nuns. It wasn’t just this family lineage that drew him to the priesthood. The availability of tennis and soccer, he admits, were part of his initial attraction: “Sometimes God uses ordinary ways to bring people to the extraordinary.” With roots solidly in place in Southern India, young William, at the young age of 15, took flight into a life of international service.

 

Studying theology and philosophy as a young seminarian, he learned of the La Salette missionaries. He was attracted to the notion of reconciliation, the cornerstone of La Salette devotion that would become the focus of his own ministry. Since there was no established La Salette seminary in India, he completed his theological studies in the Philippines. His first years, so far from home, were a dark time in his life. Away from his family and challenged by new cultural rules, language, and traditions, William seriously questioned seminary life at one point. Yet, he persevered.

 

Ordained in 1994, Father William began his career as a parochial vicar in the Philippines and within one year he assumed the role of pastor, driving his 4-wheel-drive vehicle from village to village in a parish, some 30,000 strong. He was also responsible for the oversight of a 1,300 student school, La Salette of San Mateo. “They gave me so much, received me so well, that I worked hard at my priesthood. I wanted to give back.” During this very busy time, Father William also managed to complete a Masters in Guidance and Counseling.

 

In 1998, Father William came to the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro and within a year, he became Associate Pastor at of Our Lady of the Cape in Brewster, Massachusetts. There he focused on developing youth programs. His wings growing ever stronger, he began using his days off to pursue a doctorate in Marriage and Family Counseling at the Andover Newton Theological School, the oldest theological school in the country.

 

Father William is quick to note that he is a missionary, not an immigrant priest. The church in the United States, which once sent many missionaries abroad, increasingly relies upon priests from other parts of the world to serve its growing needs. These international priests help to universalize, revitalize, and broaden the vision of American Catholics. While Father William has learned to appreciate American culture, he has also shared the richness of his eastern spirituality in his ministry as well.

 

“The Church is not just about priests, bishops, and popes; it’s about its people,” he tells his Sacred Heart Parishioners, and encourages them to take charge of their own commitment to faith. To assist them he has grown the ministries within the parish, adding a senior high youth group, and a Baptism Prep Team. In just a few years time, he has doubled the number of people serving as Eucharistic ministers, lectors, and altar servants. “Priests will come and go but you stay,” he tells them, “It’s you who need to decide how you want your church to be.”

 

Sacred Heart parishioners say Father William has made the church more open and diverse. At the front of the church a large banner proclaims “Catholics Can Always Come Home” and Father William means it. He reaches out to the “un-churched” and the wounded through a five week program in which people gather to share their stories of reconciliation. “We need to listen to their stories and to tell people how much the Church has changed. Each story is sacred. They want to know how much we care.” The Welcome Home Campaign is part of a national effort to bring disaffected Catholics back into the fold. At Sacred Heart, it works.

 

Father William has also reached beyond church walls. Come Walk with Me is an interfaith bereavement program that Father William, his doctorate recently completed, helps guide in collaboration with other pastoral and counseling professionals.

 

Even as Father William puts so much energy and focus on his ministry here in New Hampshire, he keeps in touch with other Indian priests with whom he shares a deep concern for the ongoing violence against Christians in Northern India. Christians make up a slight 2.3 percent of the population in India, yet they have built and run the country’s most prestigious education and health institutions. Missionary priests and nuns from Southern India travel to the north to evangelize and educate. However, educating the poor is a threat to politicians and landlords in Northern India. As a consequence, churches and homes have been burned and missionaries and children burnt to death, while the police have stood by and watched.

 

Violence against Christians in India in the past decade has also included social and economic boycotts and forced conversions. According to Father William, recent attacks have been pre-planned and timed to polarize Hindus in support of the BJP (Hindu political party) victories in state and general elections.

 

Here in the U.S., People for Peace in India has gathered an Interreligious Prayer Service and prepared The Boston Statement, a document which condemns these atrocities and demands that the citizens’ rights to freedom of conscience and freedom to profess and propagate one’s faith, enshrined by the constitution of India, be afforded to all. The Boston Statement further demands that the Indian government take action against perpetrators, and rehabilitate and compensate those who have been forced to flee their homes. This past November, representatives from 24 Christian organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent an open letter to then President George W. Bush demanding action against the violence.

cover-return-to-TOC Father William’s wings will undoubtedly continue to bring him to new places, though he envisions his journey one day bringing him back home to his roots in India, where he would like to establish a counseling center. Meanwhile, here in New Hampshire the parishioners of Sacred Heart share in the journey of this gifted priest who fosters the life of their local faith community, even while providing them a sense of belonging to the Universal Church.