RENNAISANCE OF THE MISSIONARY IN THE MID THIRTIES AND FORTIES

The year was 1933, when the Christians of this small village Kharagpur were waiting for Fr. Charles Vrithoff for an immediate interest in their problems. Shortly after his appointment as Assistant Parish Priest., he wrote in the Mission periodical ‘Our Field’;

“On Christmas 1933, I baptized three Santal children who were brought to me from Olda, a village some 24 miles south of Kharagpur. Last Christmas only men came from Olda excusing themselves for the absence of women as they had no bullock carts. After a long chat they disclosed how many years ago they had migrated from Jualbhanga to Olda. Alas! One day the whole Catholic community had made up their minds to cross over to the Baptists. But our friends, the two brothers Peter and Michael objected, ‘Let them become Baptists, we will not. We belong to the church of the beginning (the Adi mondoli, an expression so often heard in the 24 Parganas)

However Fr. Charles Vrithoff was a Railway Chaplain. Nowadays the church collections were handsome and Railway Chaplains hardly ever walked: they moved in their own car and travelled 1^st class on the Railway. He goes on, “Having heard that their padre was visiting them by car, I did the same. The road was bad, we got stuck. We walked and reached Olda to the great joy of our Catholics. After staying one hour we returned to Kharagpur”.

This was the golden era of Kharagpur in those days when the railway chaplains were enjoying from their ministry. On the other hand one man however realized that more time should be given to Olda. Fr. Alfred D’Hondt was appointed as assistant in 1938 and was put in charge of St. Anthony’s while he paid regular visits to Olda where he would spend the night and next morning.

The interest and regular visit of Alfred D’Hondt paid the effort and one family after another returned to the ‘Adi Mandali’ and by 1945 Olda became a fully Catholic Village. But in 1952, he was transferred to Sacred Heart Church, Dharamtolla Calcutta and Fr. Bonaventure D’Souza became the first Parish Priest of St. Anthony’s.