THE JESUITS IN THAILAND - PART II 1954 - 1979

By Pietro Cerutti, S.J.

The occasion of this new Jesuit Mission to Thailand had something similar to the beginning of the old Mission to Siam. Then it was the ruin of the flourishing Mission of Japan that made the Jesuits come to Siam; now it was the ruin of the Missions of China, after the Communists conquered that land, that was the occasion of the Jesuits coming to Thailand.

In the middle of the twentieth century Thailand was yet mainly a Mission of the Parish Foreign Mission Society (MEP). Though caring for only two of the six Missions, these two Missions of the MEP, however, had more that half of the territory, three-fourths of the population, and more than half of the Catholics of Thailand. The center of the MEP Thai Missions was, of course, Bangkok, the Capital of the country. The Vicar Apostolic of Bangkok was Mgr. Louis Chorin, MEP. The Vicar Delegate, and at the same time Pastor of the Cathedral, Fr. Leo Perroudon, MEP had expressed to the Bishop his own and other priests’ desire to have some Jesuits come to work in Thailand, an apostolic field in which the need of laborers was felt more and more each day. Mgr. Chorin told Fr. Perroudon to go ahead and contact the Jesuits. Fr. Perroudon , though knowing that the General of the Jesuits was in Rome, did not know his address. The only Jesuit institution’s address he knew was that of the College St. Michel in Bruxelles, Belgium. So he wrote to the “Rev. Father General of the Society of Jesus, c/o College St. Michel, Bruxelles, Belgium”. In his letter he merely asked Fr. General to send some Jesuits to Thailand without any special proposal about the work the Jesuits might do.

In his answer Fr. General told him that, due to the many Jesuits expelled from China, there was a good chance of getting some of them for Thailand. The practical procedure should be for the Vicar Apostolic to contact the Vice Visitor of the China Jesuit Missions, Fr. Paul W. O’Brien. At the request of the Vicar Apostolic Fr. O’Brien went to Bangkok in the early part of 1954. It was agreed between the Vicar Apostolic and the Vice Visitor that some Jesuits would come to work with the university students. Here are the official documents.
Hsinchu, Formosa
August 6, 1954

To His Excellency Mgr. Louis Chorin, Bishop of Bangkok,
To answer the desire and invitation of His Excellency, Mgr. Louis Chorin, Bishop of Bangkok, who is asking the Society of Jesus to share in the evangelization of His Vicariate, namely, in what regards the Apostolate of the university students and other people of the same cultural ‘milieu’ (class), the Society of Jesus respectfully asks for the permission to establish, in accordance with Can. 497 of the Code of Canon Law, a Religious House in Bangkok, so that the Society may perform the ministries according to its Institute.

Your servant in Christ,

Paul W. O’Brien, S.J.
Vice Visitor of the China Missions”

Mgr. Chorin’s answer was short.
“Most heartily we give our agreement to this request of the Society of Jesus to establish in Bangkok (Siam), a Religious House.

Bangkok 14 August 1954
+ Louis Chorin, Bishop,
Vicar Apostolic of Bangkok”

As a consequence of these letters, the evening of November 17, 1954 saw Fr. Pietro Cerutti, S.J. landing in Klongtoei, the harbor of Bangkok.

Coming from Macau Fr. Cerutti was received by Frs. Larque, the Local Superior of the MEP, and Gabriel Rochereau, MEP, the Procurator. The Bishop himself had come to the jetty, but left earlier due to the delay of the ship. Nevertheless, His Excellency left his own car at the jetty to receive the first Jesuit! The yearly Statistical Bulletin

Of the Bangkok Vicariate in its 1955 issue on page 38 reported:
“Thursday, November 18 [in fact, it was the evening of Wednesday, November 17] arrived in Bangkok the Rev. Fr. Pietro Cerutti, S.J., Superior of the new foundation of the Jesuit missionaries. Needless to say, he received a really enthusiastic and fraternal welcome from all the missionaries of the MEP who were meeting on that date at the Assumption Procure for their annual retreat. Mgr. Chorin greeted the successor of those venerable members of the Society of Jesus who preached the Gospel in Siam between 1607 and 1767, though not without interruption. At present three more Jesuits have come to support Fr. Cerutti, More are expected.”

What it said was true! The welcome was extraordinarily honorable, to the point that four days later, Mgr. Chorin personally accompanied Fr. Cerutti on a sightseeing tour of Bangkok with his own car!

Ten days after Fr. Cerutti, Fr. Joseph Donohoe arrived. For a little more than one month they both lived at the Assumption Procure, presently the Archbishop’s House. On January 3, 1955 they moved to 14/7 Rajaprarob Road, a small, wooden two story house, which they rented for one year. It was agreed with Fr. Vice Visitor that during the first year they should study the Thai language before engaging in any ministry. On January 24, 1955 the third member of the community arrived, Fr. Georges Marin, and on April 2nd, the fourth, Fr. Alfred Bonningue.

Fr. Marin, 60 years of age, was the oldest of the group. He had been a member of the Suchow Mission in China and had held important positions in the Society. During the Second World War he was Visitor of the China Missions of the Society, with full powers, as the circumstances did not permit any communications with the Provincials or Fr. General. Fr. Marin came to Bangkok from Manila. Fr. Bonningue was 47 years old and had been a member of the Shienhsien Mission and President of the Tsinku University in Tientsin, China. Expelled from China not many months before coming to Bangkok, he had been imprisoned in China for three years under the harshest of conditions. Fr. Bonningue arrived in Bangkok from France. Fr. Cerutti, 45 years old, had been Superior of the Pengpu Mission in China before being expelled by the Communists.

Fr. Donohoe was the youngest being only 40 years of age. He had belonged to the Yangchow Mission, and was now coming to Bangkok from Taiwan. Although Fr. Morin was well known to all, the other three had never been together before meeting in Thailand.

Due to his age Fr. Morin was exempted from learning the Thai language, though he studied it diligently during his free time. An American of French Canadian stock he was fluent in English as well as French and so had been sent to Thailand to give retreats and spiritual conferences to the Religious communities and the clergy. He also gave retreats in Malaysia. He did much good work during the little more than one year of life he had left. In May 1956 Fr. Morin departed for Japan with a program of retreats to give there. But before he could finish, he became so exhausted that he was ordered back to the USA to recover, where on Christmas Eve of the same year while at home for the blessing of the marriage of one of his nephews, he suddenly died; the first member of the Thailand mission to pass away.

All that year of 1955, as we have said, was to be given to the study of the Thai language, which was done privately, with manuals, a tape-recorder and a tutor. Later on, after Fr. Eugene Denis arrived at the end of 1955, he and almost all those who followed for the next six to seven years went to study the language at Assumption School of the Brothers of St. Gabriel in Sriracha. One of the Brothers was their expert teacher and they were able to practice speaking Thai with the many student borders at the school. The Fathers were welcomed at the school as chaplains. This way of studying the language lasted until the year 1963 when Fr. Iker Villanueva was the first Catholic missionary to be admitted to the Language School in Bangkok, which had been set up by a group of Protestant Missions. All those who came after that studied the language at this school.

At the end of 1955 a larger house was rented at 131 Rajadamri Lane, Rajadamri Road, near the Rajaprasong Crossing. The compound was about 3,000 square meters. There was a big house on it, but not yet sufficient for the work that the community was contemplating. So, with the agreement of the owner, a second house and chapel were built, both in wood, so that in case of moving again the materials could be moved and used at the next location. Meanwhile, with the help of the Brothers and Sisters running the Catholic schools, a list had been made of about 100 Catholic boys and girls who were students at the state universities. Invitations were sent out to them to meet at the Jesuit’s place on Sunday, July 1, 1956. About 60 showed up. After Mass everyone moved to a restaurant across the road from the residence. Over breakfast the Fathers got acquainted with the students and the students with one another. It was proposed to them to start an association of Catholic students to be called the “University Students’ Catholic Center” (USCC). The atmosphere, rather cool at the beginning, warmed up. The students elected a committee, which, together with the Fathers, would plan their activities. For that occasion Fr. Denis, who had come from Sriracha, appeared to be the man most qualified to act as chaplain. From then on meetings of the Catholic students were held regularly about once a month.

At the beginning of that same school year Fr. Bonningue and Fr. Donohoe were invited to teach at Chulalongkorn University, French and English respectively. That proved to be a good occasion of contact with the university people. Language lessons were given privately by almost all of the Fathers. In those first years this gave them the opportunity to get acquainted with people, and was also a financial help for the Jesuit community. Later on with more important work to be done, those private lessons were dropped.

By Christmas of 1957 a substantial grant of US$50,000 was received from Propaganda, Rome, money enough to set up the community on its own land. After a long search, around Easter of 1958 it was agreed that land near the Victory Monument by the Samsen Canal was by far the most convenient. On April 12th the purchase contract was signed. As all the capital had gone into buying the land, the China Province helped for the building of the residence and chapel, both in wood and in fittings with the material from the buildings that had been erected at Rajadamri Road. The community moved to the new location on December 20, 1958, calling their new site, “Xavier Hall”, in honor of the great missionary of Asia, St. Francis Xavier.

While speaking of land and buildings, it might be opportune to indicate the most important developments in this line that would follow later. In 1961 a four story cement Student Hostel building was financed completely by the China Province. In 1967 an adjoining rectangular plot of land was added to the west side of our property. In 1971 the old two story, wooden residence was pulled down and relocated to the west side of the compound on the land purchased earlier, to be used as a laundry and residence for some of our employees, and a new four story concrete structure was constructed in its place for the Jesuit residence. The old wooden chapel along the canal was similarly pulled down and an imposing new church built further inside where formerly there was a small pond. Also, at the west side of the compound a University Catholic Students’ Center was erected. The Students’ Center together with all its furnishings and equipment was financed 75% by Misereor of Germany; the church and Jesuit residence were paid for 66% by the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference. It was at this time that two bricks thought to be from our church in Ayutthaya and residence in Lopburi some 400 years ago, were inserted into the low front wall of the new Xavier Hall Church. Settled now at home, the Jesuit community were able to work and plan for the future better than before.

The main work, the one for which the Jesuits had been called to Thailand, was the work with Catholic university students. In September 1959 the students’ group was divided into two sections: 1. Catholic students at the State universities, and 2. Catholic pre-university and vocational school students. That same year the former members of the USCC asked to form a group for graduates or “Newman Club”. In 1964 upon completing his first Doctorate in France and returning to Thailand Fr. Denis was asked to be Chaplain of the Catholic Doctors Association, advising them especially in religious and moral matters. In 1975, after several years at the University of Khon Kaen, Fr. Jean Barry returned to Bangkok and became advisor to a group of Catholic educators who taught in non-Catholic institutions and formed what they called a “Teachers’ Team”. Through monthly meetings, seminars and personal encounters, the participants were encouraged to grow in their Faith.

The most common activities engaged in by the different students’ groups were the Spiritual Exercises, seminars on subjects relevant to their life and duties in society, leadership training, educational trips to places of interest, student work camps with villagers in the countryside, and even, occasionally, picnics.

Contact with the students, including those who did not take part in the Center’s activities, was maintained through periodical circular letters. Very soon some students wanted a more active part in such written communications, and a magazine was started by the students themselves aimed at their friends, both Catholic and non-Catholic. The magazine was named, “Chaval” (Torch), and was published for more than three years. Finally, it had to cease publication, despite the students’ efforts to find financial support, due to its heavy burden on our finances.

Since the very beginning of the USCC it was felt that, being part of the Catholic Church, it would be good to be part of the wider Catholic students’ movement, Pax Romana. In 1956 two Catholic students went to their first meeting of Pax Romana in Singapore. Later on the Newman Club as well as the University Catholic Students were officially associated with Pax Romana. Thereafter, almost every year students and Chaplains took part in international meetings, not only in Asian countries, but also in Lima, Peru in 1975, and Spain in 1978. In early December of 1961 the Asian meeting of Pax Romana was held at Xavier Hall together with the solemn inauguration of the Xavier Hall Students’ Hostel. There were also special international meetings of student Chaplains sponsored by Pax Romana like the “Intensive Course for Asian Student Leaders” in 1974 at our Jesuit Center in Chiang Mai, and the “Student Chaplains Formation Course” in 1976, sponsored jointly by Pax Romana and the Asian Bishops’ Conference, also at the Chiang Mai Jesuit Center.

On July 2, 1959 Fr. Andre Gomane succeeded Fr. Cerutti as Superior of Xavier Hall. It was characteristic of the new Superior that three days after his appointment something new began at Xavier Hall: an embryo Hostel for students. Fr. Gomane was deeply convinced that for the effectiveness of the work among Catholic students we needed a hostel in which Catholics would always be a majority, though not excluding Buddhists. These Catholic hostel students would be the most reliable nucleus of the Catholic Students’ Association. So he went for a hostel with all his heart and influence. It began with 4 Catholic students who lived in the upper floor of a bungalow in the middle of the compound’s pond. Then with the financial help of the China Province a four story hostel was built by October 1961. A solemn opening with the participation of high authorities both of the Church and the Government was held on December 13th. Fr. Franz Reiterer was in charge as Prefect, a job he was to hold for many years both in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. But Fr. Gomane’s hopes were never realized. The Catholic hostel students were never more than a small minority among a large majority of Buddhists. As these Catholics were coming from the Provinces, they could never be the animating force of the USCC.

The next development in the work with the students took place in 1963 when Fr. Gomane, passing the job of Superior of Xavier Hall to Fr. Augustin Moling, was assigned to open a new Catholic Students’ Center in Chiang Mai concomitant with the Governments’ opening of Chiang Mai University. The execution of the project took time. Fr. Gomane began exploring the possibilities. Some people of the Church of Christ in Thailand, the most important of the many Protestant denominations working in Thailand and with whom the Jesuits had always had good relations, proposed to Fr. Gomane the opening of a “Christian Students’ Center, conducted jointly by the Jesuits and their Church. The idea was inviting, coming as it did during the years of Vatican II and the call for ecumenism. However, the authorities of both the Catholic Church and the Church of Christ did not agree.

Then a second plan was made to open a Center in which both Jesuits and some Catholic nuns would work together for the students. The Ursulines of the Roman Union were approached and an agreement was soon reached to have a common center in which two hostels, one for boys, the other for girls would be opened. The two hostels would be separated by a central section for common use containing a chapel, library, auditorium, offices and cafeteria. The center was given the name, “Suan Jet Rin” (Garden of the Seven Fountains) after the name of an ancient city of the same name which had existed nearby. As the Center’s chapel was called the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, The Seven Fountains could be interpreted to mean the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. A large piece of property for the Center was bought almost across the street from the University, and the Center was finally opened with a solemn ceremony in August 1965. As Chiang Mai University was the only university in the city and our Center was close to the University, relations between the Seven Fountains and the university were closer than any between Xavier Hall and the many universities of Bangkok. The Jesuit ministry with the university Catholic students of Chiang Mai was similar to that of Bangkok, although on a smaller scale.

During the sixties the Thai Government tried to decentralize higher education. Shortly after the establishment of Chiang Mai University in the North, a similar institution was opened in Khon Kaen in the Northeast. The Jesuits thought that they should follow this movement of government expansion. In 1966, on the strength of their experience in Chiang Mai, they envisaged a similar venture in Khon Kaen, bought a piece of land close to the University, and convinced the Ursuline Sisters to do the same. Two years later in January 1968, Fr. Jean Barry was appointed to start the work in Khon Kaen. Fr. Barry had first come to Thailand in March 1960 immediately after finishing theology and being ordained to the priesthood in Taiwan. He spent one-and-a-half years studying the Thai language before leaving for Canada and the U.S.A. to do his Tertianship and graduate studies. He graduated with a Doctorate in Counseling at Columbia University, New York. His dissertation on the Values and Attitudes of Thai Students in American Universities was published at Cornell University. Back in Bangkok in 1966, he was entrusted with the direction of the Xavier Hall Hostel until his Khon Kaen appointment.

Following his new assignment he started exploring the situation and discovered that Khon Kaen University was an entirely residential institution where both staff members and students all live on campus. A Catholic student center outside the University would have been irrelevant. Then Fr. Barry was offered a full-time professorship at the University. The post included a residence on campus close to other staff houses and to the student residence halls. In May 1968 he moved to Khon Kaen and began to devote himself to his academic duties. He was immediately appointed Director of Counseling Services for the whole student body. Shortly afterwards he was asked to draft a project for a new Faculty of Education. This Faculty started to operate the following year and Fr. Barry assumed its deanship for the first six months while waiting for a Thai professor to take over the post. Later he remained con- sultant to the Dean and was involved in all the aspects of the development of this Faculty. In 1972 he was appointed Registrar of the University, a post he held for three years.

Meanwhile, Fr. Barry’s house became a gathering place for the small Catholic community on campus; it was altogether a home, a chapel, a place for meetings and workshops, and a place for parties. It also served as a home for students from Bangkok on their way to village areas to prepare some of the many work camps organized by Xavier Hall. Those years produced one vocation to the Society, a graduate in Agriculture, Vichai Phokthavi, who is now completing his philosophy studies.

After almost eight years of total involvement with the university work, internal power struggles developed on campus, and these, compounded by the political turmoil in the country at the time, made it impossible to play any longer a meaningful role. Fr. Barry decided to resign. The apostolate among the university students was handed over to the Redemptorist Fathers who were already in the area. Two years later, the land originally bought to build a center was sold.

In July 1965 we find a short note in the Bangkok House diary: “A new, interesting development in the work with the university students: meetings take place in the various Universities with the Catholic students of that University and their chaplains.” This trend was so good, that it lasted, and developed still more. At present in 1979 the Catholic Students’ Group is officially registered with three universities of Bangkok. And in other state institutions of higher learning meetings of the Catholic students are allowed even without official recognition.

The political moment could, of course, affect both the life of the students and the work of the Jesuits with the students. After the university students of Bangkok overthrew the military dictatorship on October 14 – 15, 1973, the Xavier Hall Catholic students made their own little revolution against the way the Center was run. On November 10 – 11th of that year Catholic students representing eleven universities met on their own initiative at the Major Seminary in Sampran. They invited the Archbishop, a few Thai diocesan priests and two chaplains from Xavier Hall, and set themselves up as “The University Catholic Students’ Center of Thailand”. After some hesitation they agreed to use Xavier Hall as their Center and to have the “former” Jesuit Chaplains as their “advisers”. Proclaiming themselves a “lay autonomous movement”, they set up a committee and started editing a monthly magazine without previous censorship. Not even the “advisers” were to know what was published until it came from the printing press. The magazine was sold at the doors of the churches in Bangkok. There were good things in it, but also sharp criticisms and attacks on Catholic institutions, schools, and religious. As it came out in the name of Xavier Hall, the general feeling of the readers was that the Jesuits were responsible for whatever was written in it. In fact, it must be admitted that in some way they were responsible, since they were paying for it, – with money from the German foundation, Misereor, given to help us in our student work.

This was all in accord with the general political line of that period. Were not the students the authors of the revolution? So they considered themselves the masters of the new Democracy. Their youthful enthusiasm, without enough experience of the realities of life, was to bring about a rough reaction: namely, the massacre of the students at Thammasat University and the military coup d’etat of October 6, 1976.

But even before that, a campaign of accusations was started against the Jesuits. Anonymous writings abusive of the Jesuits and their work were widely circulated. This culminated in a manifestation by a small group of Catholics against the Fathers at Xavier Hall. It was Sunday, January 25, 1976, the last day of the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. A small group of German Lutherans had come to the 9:00 A.M. Mass and so, were also witnesses of those demonstrators who, at the end of the Mass, came into the Xavier Hall compound, and went up the steps in front of the church displaying posters insulting the Jesuits, while one of them with a loudspeaker started shouting a tirade against the Jesuits, “supporters of Communism”. Everybody was taken by surprise, unable at first to realize what was going on. When the speaker, invited to stop, tried to go on, a short scuffle ensued. Happily, the Catholic students were not in the Church with the other faithful, but were having a special Mass in the big hall of the Center. If they had been present, things might have turned out much worse.

Afterwards the Catholic student magazine ceased publication and Catholic students’ activities slowed down, partly because Fr. Miguel Garaizabal, their Chaplain, went abroad to make his Tertianship. Then for almost one year practically every activity stopped, since the new Government forbade all students’ activities except studying. One year later in October 1977, after a second military coup against the Government which the military themselves had set up the year before, a bit more liberal policy was adopted. The Catholic students elected a temporary committee for the universities of Bangkok and quietly resumed their activities. A year later in October 1978, a regular committee was set up with representatives from eight universities in Bangkok. Now they are going to start a “National Federation of the Catholic Students of Thailand” with representatives from all the universities of the country. This organization is part of the Catholic Association of Thailand, which is registered with the Government, and is affiliated with the Catholic Youth Commission under the supervision of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand.

The ministry of teaching in the State Universities has continued, perhaps at its best in the late sixties and early seventies when Fr. Jacques Amyot was Professor of Anthropology at Chulalongkorn University and Fr. Javier Goyoaga his assistant there. Fr. Amyot was Director of the Chulalongkorn University Social Science Research Institute (CUSSRI), which he himself had founded. At the same time Fr. Barry was full-time Professor at Khon Kaen University; Fr. Gomane, Professor and head of the French Section at Chiang Mai University, with Fr. Villanueva teaching Psychology at the same University even until today in 1979; and Fr. Denis, Professor of French Literature and Language at Chulalongkorn University. Although Fr. Bonningue was not in Thailand during this period, as we will say soon, nevertheless, in all the years before and after, and until now, he has been Professor of French Literature and Language in several Bangkok universities. Though not a full-time professor, his constant presence in the universities has made him well known to a wide number of Professors, quite a few of whom had been his students.

After leaving Khon Kaen and rejoining the Bangkok Community, Fr. Barry divided his time between counseling and a doing a survey on higher education in Thailand. Through counseling he reached a fairly large number of students and adults in need of help to solve personal and educational problems. He also provided screening advice to some religious congregations for their candidates to the priesthood and the religious life.

The survey on higher education involved writing institutional reports on Thai colleges and universities under the sponsorship of the Institute of International Education (IIE). During the years 1976-78 he wrote 34 such reports which were widely distributed and highly appreciated in Thailand as well as in the U.S.A. They were considered a major contribution to the understanding of the university education system in Thailand. In August 1978 he was granted an associate research award by the International Development Research Corporation (IDRC) to study educational projects in East Asian countries and to update himself on recent developments in theories of learning and education technology at Stanford University in the U.S.A. and at Lancaster University in England.

Quite a few names have been mentioned in this work of teaching. Many more should be, because almost every one of the Fathers at some time or other has been doing this work at one university or another. Frs. Villanueva, Alfonso de Juan and Miguel Garaizabal have been teaching Spanish. Fr. Franz Reiterer and Fr. Augustin Moling have been teaching German, and Fr. Sigmund Laschenski English and Latin. These and others have been teaching at Thailand’s national major seminary, religious novitiates, the National Catechetical Center, and the Sisters’ Formation Center. For example, Fr. Moling has done plenty of such work; Fr. Reiterer has been teaching philosophy at Payap College, a Protestant institution and seminary in Chiang Mai.

Some Fathers not only have been Professors, but were also students in universities. The first was Fr. Denis, who in 1957 to 1959 enrolled as a free auditor of Thai, Pali and Sanskrit Literature and Language at Chulalongkorn University while teaching French Literature and Language there. It was then that the well known Professor Phya Anuman Rajadhon put him in contact with French Orientalists under whose guidance Fr. Denis began research in Thailand about the Legend of Phra Malay. In 1960 Fr. Denis went to Paris for one year of higher studies of Pali and Sanskrit, to be followed by two years of work for a Doctorate of the Third Cycle, and concluding with a thesis of 450 pages on that Buddhist Legend of the Holy Monk of Malayyadeva. The Doctorate resulted in Fr. Denis’ promotion to Attache de Recherche at the CNRS or Centre National de Recherche Scientifique.

Back in Bangkok in November 1964 Fr. Denis continued his research of old manuscripts on Buddhist Cosmology. The research took him to Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat and, even to Taiwan in quest of Chinese manuscripts. By 1972 he was again in France preparing a thesis for a “Doctorat d’Etat” , a thesis of 860 pages on the Lokapannatti. Such studies have made him an outstanding specialist in those ancient Buddhist documents. Again in Bangkok since November 1976, he continues his work of research and edition of old manuscripts as a Charge de Recherche for the CNRS, while teaching French Literature at Chulalongkorn and working as Chaplain to the Newman Club and Catholic Doctors.

Another student at Chulalongkorn University, in 1966 was the Jesuit scholastic, Alfonso de Juan. Then after his this theological studies in India, obtaining a Master’s Degree in Sociology in the U.S.A., two more years of sociological studies at the Gregorian University in Rome, and three years of research in Thailand, he obtained in 1977 a Doctorate from the Gregorian with a thesis on “Change in the Belief and Practice of Buddhism among Thai University Students.”

Another work of the Thailand Jesuits was that of publications. The initiative came from Fr. Bonningue in the very first year of 1955. With the help of Professor Eugenie Prakin Chumsai for translation into Thai he published pamphlets on such topics as “God”, “Man”, “Social Questions”, “St. Paul”, and “St. Francis Xavier”.

In 1959 a monthly series of “Samut Xavier” (Xavier Pamphlets) was begun. At first each pamphlet treated a single subject. Then it soon became a magazine of Christian thought aimed at the Clergy, Religious and educated Christians. In 1964 the publication continued with the name, “Chaval”, the same name as that of the former students’ magazine. After publication altogether 86 fascicles of almost 100 pages each, it died in 1969. Publication had to cease because there was no one who could give it the care it required, and because, although we were good at publishing, we were not so good at marketing.

Other books were translated or adapted from foreign languages, like, “The Hermit of the Desert”, - Charles de Foucauld, or were even newly composed like the book, “Jesus Christ” by Fr. Edouard Petit. In 1963, and again in 1967 a Catholic Directory of Thailand was edited at Xavier Hall. However, the lack of salesmanship skills made all these ventures a financial loss.

As he had been the initiator of Jesuit publications, Fr. Bonningue was also the one who started social work. In February 1958 he began the Holy Angels Center for adult education in a wooden hovel at Huay Kwang, a slum area of Bangkok. The Center grew little by little until in 1963 it became a concrete building on land that belonged to it. The activities were not limited to the education of adults, but also to that of children. It had a clinic with a medical doctor and nurses who came to work there on appointed days. The Center was run by lay men and women volunteers. Perhaps the best fruit of the Center was the starting of the first Credit Union in Thailand. Begun at the Center, the idea picked up speed and spread all over the Country.

When Fr. Bonningue left Thailand in October 1967 to become the first Secretary of what was to become the Jesuit Bureau of Asian Affairs (BAA), the Holy Angels Center continued its programs under the care of the men and women who had been volunteering their help. But the building itself came under the authority of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand and became the center of direction for all the social action work of the Church in Thailand. Returning to Thailand four years later Fr. Bonningue started a new social center, The Angels’ House, in 1972; this time in a slum zone near the Klongtoei harbor of Bangkok. The Center is still going on under the care of an Ursuline Sister.

The students of Xavier Hall cooperated on various occasions in the work of Holy Angels’ Center. But their best organized and most productive activity has been what are called Voluntary Work Camps. Every year from 1962 to 1976, during the summer vacations, one, and sometimes two groups of 30 to 40 students together with Jesuit Fathers and scholastics, would travel to some country village to execute a well-prepared and planned project building something of which the village was in real need, like a school, a road, or a dam. For three to four weeks the campers lived together with the villagers, who shared in the students’ work. At some camps the students organized youth clubs. Everywhere they helped the local people to improve in some way their ordinary way of life, and at the same time the students themselves learned much from both the villagers and the total experience of the camp. Unhappily this work had to stop after the October 6th military coup d’etat in 1976.

Since 1978 the students have found new avenues of social action. Small groups of about eight travel to country villages for exposure to rural life. They go to Catholic villages where there is a resident priest, and live, work and eat with the villagers. When evening comes they sit with the people around a fire, sing with them, and share their thoughts, each according to his or her own capacity. This exposure lasts about two weeks. At the end those students reflect on their experience in an effort to draw some practical conclusions for life.

Speaking of social work, it must be noted that one of the Thailand Jesuits is the National Secretary of SELA, and takes part in all SELA meetings and activities. Some of those meetings were held at Xavier Hall. In 1963, for example, under the direction of Frs. Walter Hogan and Jesus Brena, a month long training course was conducted at Xavier Hall for 80 participants from all over Asia, from Japan and Korea to Pakistan on the social teaching of the Church.

Last, but of course not least, is the work of direct ministry. Every one of the Fathers shares in this work. Mentioned above was Fr. Barry’s work of counseling. Fr. Villanueva is continually engaged in the same. Indeed, each of the Fathers shares in this work according to his capacity and time.

In particular the most common ministry of the Fathers has been that of giving the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, spiritual conferences, and formation courses for religious men and women. Fr. Marin had come to Thailand for this type of ministry, and gave the first retreat in 1955, less than two months after his arrival, not to mention many others in the short time he had left to live. Fr. Paul O’Brien, who as Visitor initiated the Thailand Mission, came himself towards the end of 1965, at the age of 60, to be the Superior of Xavier Hall. Fr. O’Brien considered the retreat ministry his most important work. Frs. Moling and Villanueva have been much engaged in this kind of work. If statistics were gathered on the number of retreats given by the Thailand Jesuits in Thailand, Laos, Burma, Cambodia, Malaysia and many other countries, they would be impressive. Many 30-day retreats were among those given.

It is worth remembering here that the Charismatic Movement was introduced into Thailand by Fr. O’Brien, who is yet its outstanding leader in the country.

Most recently Fr. Moling has been assigned as Chaplain and Advisor to the Diocesan Congregation of Sisters in Ubol, and to be at the disposition of the Bishop there. After being the Pastor of Xavier Hall Church and Prefect of the Student Hostel for years, he is leaving Bangkok for Ubol to take up this new ministry.

The pastoral ministry of our Xavier Hall Church has continued to grow. From the beginning, since January 1955, a few individuals would come to the garage-chapel of our first small residence. In 1959 with a larger chapel in the second residence, we started having various Sunday Masses with a sizable congregation.

After that glorious Sunday, March 5, 1972 when Archbishop Nitayo, presiding at a concelebrated Mass with two other bishops and the Fathers of the Community, in the presence of the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio and a congregation of more than 1000 people, consecrated the beautiful new church of Xavier Hall, we began having four Masses every Sunday and daily Masses for the people. That some 1000 faithful come for the Sunday Masses at Xavier Hall, which is not an official parish, is due to the fact of its location near the bus stations surrounding Victory Monument, which makes this church the easiest of access of all the churches in Bangkok, and also to the convenience of finding every Sunday, not to mention every day, confessors at one’s disposition.

It is worth noting that besides the four Sunday Masses for Catholics, there is also a Sunday service in the church for German speaking Lutherans who reside in Bangkok temporarily for their work. It is only right that our church, built mainly from money from Germany, be of advantage also for those German Christians.

Another ministry undertaken since the very beginning in 1955 and still going on is that of the instruction of adult catechumens, those preparing for Baptism. It started with a few Mandarin speaking Chinese, and soon continued in the Thai language. It is a work of long patience since the instructions have all been given to individuals. When there are as many as twelve adults baptized in one year, it is a great joy!

Our Thailand Jesuit Mission began as part of the “China Province”, which at that time had not yet become an official Province, but was an aggregate of many former Missions in China under one Visitor. Later on September 3, 1966 Thailand, together with Vietnam, was erected into the Vietnam-Thailand Region dependent on the China Province. Fr. Jacques de Leffe was the first Regional Superior. Four years later on November 6, 1970 Thailand was separated from Vietnam and designated as the Region of Thailand with Fr. Sigmund J. Laschenski as its first Regional Superior. Fr. Laschenski joined the Thailand Region on July 31, 1967, a rather recent acquisition of the Region. He came to Thailand after being expelled from Burma where he was the Spiritual Father of the National Major Seminary of Burma, which was opened in Rangoon by the Jesuits of the Maryland Province in 1958. In 1967 Fr. Villanueva succeeded Fr.Laschenski as the second Regional Superior of Thailand.

In February 1962 a meeting of the Major Superiors of the East Asian Assistancy was held at Xavier Hall. Among them the Provincial of Japan at that time was Fr. Pedro Arrupe. Another such meeting took place at Xavier Hall in 1974 after Fr. Arrupe had become Fr. General, Superior of the Jesuits worldwide.

The Thailand Region with its limited number of members (the average number of Jesuits in Thailand has been about 20) had, since 1960 only one Jesuit Brother, Brother Juan Baptist Gutierrez, of invaluable help in Bangkok and especially Chiang Mai where he designed an intricate water system from wells on the property, planted many beautiful trees, and ran the house as Minister. Since 1964 scholastics arrived from different Provinces, including one from India, Anthony Amalanathan. The first Jesuit priest to be ordained in Thailand was Fr. Alfonso de Juan on March 21, 1970. On the day of the consecration of the new church, March 5, 1972, Fr. Miguel Garaizabal was ordained, adding to the solemnity of the day. Fr. Amalanathan was ordained a year later in his own country. He and Fr. Miguel have been carrying on the work of student Chaplains after Fr. Laschenski for the last 5 to 6 years.

There were also local vocations. The first Thai novice was Paul Tienchai Ankasuvansiri, who entered the Society in August 1958 from Australia where he was studying at the time. This provoked a furor in his family, and he was forced to return home. In May 1960 he tried a second time, but it ended in the same way as the first. A few other Thais followed entering the novitiate. But, alas, some left before making their first vows, others after; one after Philosophy and Regency. The only one who persevered and became the first Thai Jesuit priest is Fr. Joachim Ruangyot Kalvichitr, ordained on November 17, 1973. There is one Thai scholastic in Philosophy, Michael Vichai Phokthavi. The lack of success of the others was due, perhaps, to the fact that they were not prepared here with a pre-novitiate formation, and were sent to make their novitiate abroad, out of their natural milieu, and sometimes with insufficient ability to communicate in English with their formators. Vichai is the first one who made his novitiate in Thailand under the direction of Fr. Villanueva, the Regional Superior at the time, culminating as Master of Novices.

This lack of vocations is the weakness of our Thailand Region. If it happened to us what happened in Vietnam, - the expulsion of all the foreigners – it would be almost the end of the Society in Thailand.

In the last months before leaving for Seattle University in the U.S.A. Fr. Ruangyot started a Vocation Campaign with pamphlets and visits to Catholic schools. This work now continues under Frs. Amalanathan and Garaizabal. Fr. Amalanathan, a specialist in Mass Media, has prepared a set of slides on the History of the Society, on St. Ignatius, etc. Soon, it is to be hoped, some fruits of this work will emerge.

A Note About the Author

Pietro Cerutti, founder of the Jesuit mission in Thailand in modern times, was born on September 27, 1909 at Maggiate Inferiore of the Province of Novara in Italy, the first of eight children. He entered the Jesuit novitiate of the Turin Province in 1924, and after three years of philosophy at Chieri, left for China, arriving in Shanghai on January 18, 1932. After five months of language study in Hsienhien and three years of regency, he returned to the Jesuit International Theological Faculty at Zikawei. During theology, in 1937, the Japanese invaded Shanghai. With 22 classmates from nine different nations he was ordained in 1938. In 1939 he returned to his mission as pastor of one of the largest districts. After tertianship at Wuhu (1940 – 1941) and serving for two years in a school, he was named dean of the north of the mission, and arrived at his station on July 23, 1943 just before the news of Mussolini’s disgrace. The disposition of his Japanese masters changed, and after a mild internment, he was released to engage in religious activity only. But missionary activity was not easy, for while the Japanese occupied the cities, the Communist guerillas occupied the countryside. In these circumstances he took over on July 2, 1945 the charge of Superior of the Italian mission and Vicar General of the Bishop. On August 14, 1948 came the joyful news of peace, but alas! a week later the Communists appeared and missionary work was paralyzed by the war between the Communists and the Nationalists. Pengpu finally fell on January 20, 1949. On December 17, 1950 a violent campaign was launched by the Communist youth against Fr. Cerutti and another Father, and on January 13, 1951 they were escorted to Tientsin and put on a ship for Hong Kong, expelled from China. Thus ended the China phase of Fr. Cerutti’s mission career.

From Hong Kong he was sent to the Portuguese city of Macau to work with refugees escaping the “freedom” of the Communists. Working at first with students, two years later in July 1953 he was named Superior of the residence of Jesuits expelled from China. Here began under his direction and with the aid of several companions, a structure of charitable work for refugees, - schools, housing, asylums, etc. – that makes up one of the brilliant pages of mission history. But it was time to move on.

When Msgr. Chorin of the Paris Foreign Mission Society, Bishop of Bangkok, heard of the expulsion of the Jesuits from China, he wrote for some of them to work in Bangkok in the university milieu. Father Cerutti was chosen to pioneer this work and arrived in Bangkok on November 17, 1954, thus becoming the founder of the modern Thai mission (The old mission finished with the death of the last Jesuit in May 1776).  He was warmly received by the Bishop and quickly won the hearts of all by his humility and simplicity.

The first year was dedicated to the study of Thai and search for a suitable location. After several rented houses, he finally chose and bought the present property of Xavier Hall, located near the Victory Monument and at that time “in the country”. The community moved in on December 20, 1958. Two years earlier in 1956 a University Students Catholic Center had been started and two of the Fathers been invited to teach English and French at the royal Chulalongkorn University.

For many years Father Cerutti was Chaplain and taught religion at the Ursuline girls’ school in Bangkok. When the National Major Seminary opened in Sampran, a superb historian, he taught Church History there. However, his later years were spent mostly in pastoral ministry at Xavier Hall instructing converts and caring for parishioners.

By nature shy, he was gifted with great practical wisdom and balanced judgement. Self-effacing and welcoming initiative, he allowed much freedom within the objectives of the mission. In the absence of the Superior of the mission for any reason, he was usually the one asked to replace him, - a mark of esteem and confidence.

Of robust constitution he enjoyed good health most of his life. Towards the end he began to feel tired. Still, his death came as a surprise. Entering St. Louis Hospital on Christmas Eve, and apparently improving, he died suddenly on Christmas day 1984 of a heart attack. The great number of people at his funeral bore witness to the quiet esteem in which he was held. Founder of the mission he was the first Jesuit to die in Thailand, and is buried in the cemetery of St. Francis Xavier Church, Samsen, Bangkok.

Fr. Pietro Cerutti, S.J.: 19 years in China through troubled times; 3 years in Macau; and 30 years in Thailand: a missionary to the people of East Asia for 52 years!
(Anonymous, from the Jesuit files at Xavier Hall )

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