Paul Goethals

Paul Goethals (11 November 1832, Kortrijk, Belgium - 4 July 1901, Calcutta, India) was a Belgian Jesuit priest, missionary in India and First Archbishop of Calcutta.

Early years and Formation

Born in an influential and politically active family (his father was member of the foundational National Congress of Belgium of 1831) Goethals did his secondary studies at the Jesuit High school of Liège, Belgium. After joining the Society of Jesus he did his philosophical studies in Namur (1856-57) and theology at the Catholic University of Leuven (1863-67).

Rector and Provincial

Goethals was the Rector of the Saint Jean-Berchmans High School, Bruxelles (1868-69) and soon after Provincial of the Belgian Jesuits (1870-76). Then again Rector of the Notre-Dame de la Paix High School in Namur. Everything seemed to have destined him to progress in a successful administration career in Jesuit educational institutions. A turn came however when, because of his leadership qualities joined to a good knowledge of English, he was chosen as Apostolic Vicar of Calcutta. The Bengal mission was at that time entrusted to the Belgian Jesuits.

Archbishop of Calcutta

Goethals arrived in Calcutta, as Vicar Apostolic, on the 4 November 1878. When the Catholic hierarchy was established in India (1 September 1886) he became the first Archbishop of Calcutta. The 23 years that Goethals was at the helm were years of development and consolidation of the Catholic Church in East India, with the establishment of the Jesuit Theologate in Kurseong, near Darjeeling (1889), the arrival of numerous religious congregations who opened missions, schools and dispensaries. He is also the founder of the first indigenous religious congregation of women, the Daughters of St Ann, in 1899.

Goethals actively encouraged evangelization and education in the Chota Nagpur plateau of Central India and was an effective help to Constant Lievens' work among the Mundas, Oraons and Kharias of Jharkhand. In and around Darjeeling too, in the first slopes of the Himalayas, he opened up new missionary centres and backed the Jesuits’ foundation of the St Joseph High School (Darjeeling). A boarding school in Kurseong keeps his memory alive: the "Goethals Memorial School".

In Calcutta he started a Catholic printing press, establishes several new parishes and gathered a collection of more than 6000 books on India (religions, geography, travels, culture and languages) that became the nucleus of what is know today as the "Goethals Indian Library and Research Centre" (attached to St. Xavier's College, Calcutta). Intellectually open and quite active in the cultural and social life of the city he was at one point the president of the "Asiatic Society of Bengal", an association of scholars (started by William Jones) devoted to promoting a better knowledge and appreciation of Indian languages and civilizations.

External links

* http://goethalsmemorialschool.com Goethals Memorial School, Kurseong
* http://goethals.org Goethals Indian Library and Research Center, Calcutta

Bibliography

*GOETHALS, Paul: "A Catalogue of books on India, and Indian subjects", Calcutta, 1894.
*Anon.: "Missions belges de la Compagnie de Jésus", Bruxelles, 1904.
*D'SA, F.: "Crisis in Chotanagpur", Bangalore, 1975