ph Naik Vaz Institutewww.josephnaikvaz.orgBerkeley, California
March 26, 2015
A Tribute for the Memorial of Rev. Fr. Roger Lesser, 1928 – 2015
The Joseph Naik Vaz Institute was formed by a small lay group in Berkeley,
California in 1978. Its purpose was to preserve his memory and to work for the
Beatification and Canonization of the recently canonized St. Joseph Vaz. He is
the newest Saint made for India and the first Saint of the state of Goa and of
Sri Lanka.
I encountered Fr. Roger Lesser because of this. His book "Sages and Saints of
India" was recommended to us around 1997 because of the wonderful chapter on
St. Joseph Vaz in it. It described the heroic missionary work of the Apostle
of Kanara and Sri Lanka. Fr. Lesser who was a critical thinker and writer on
many spiritual topics drew a striking comparison between St. Francis Xavier and
St. Joseph Vaz.
Generally, St. Francis Xavier has been held up as the missionary model in Asia.
But Fr. Lesser showed how St. Joseph Vaz was the more relevant model for post
colonial and present day India and the new nations of the world. He painted two
pictures of the two missionary saints in that chapter. On one hand, there was
the Spanish nobleman, a member of a powerful new religious Order, funded by the
Queen of Spain, a missionary who came to India with the Portuguese fleet and
worked with the protection of the Portuguese forces sent to found the
Portuguese Empire in Asia. On the other hand was the Indian priest, who
founded the small Oratorian Congregation of native priests, and went alone to
Sri Lanka without colonial arms and resources, to face persecution by yet
another colonial power, the Dutch, to make conversions without any material
enticements of any sort.
We began an enthusiastic correspondence about this topic and exchanged ideas
and articles. I began to receive Fr. Lesser’s Christmas letters and poems and
came to hear about his work with the poor in Rajasthan. In June 2000, we took
a Petition to Pope St. John Paul II asking that St. Joseph Vaz be classified a
Martyr for having worked and died under persecution and asking for him to be
canonized without the final miracle together with the many other Martyrs for
the Grand Jubilee. We found out that Fr. Lesser was in England at the time.
So we contacted him and asked him to join us to present the Petition. We flew
him to Rome. He was at the Mass organized by us at Chiesa Nuova, the famous
Oratorian church in Rome, and at which the late Cardinal Simon Pimenta
presided. He was with us when we presented the Petition to the Prefect of the
Sacred Congregation for the Saints, Cardinal Saraiva Martins. That was a very
dramatic and exciting encounter that we shared with Fr. Lesser and a group of
Indian and Sri Lankan priests and lay people in Rome.
Throughout the next few years, Fr. Lesser continued to encourage us and to say
special prayers and Masses for the Canonization of St. Joseph Vaz. He wrote to
some Indian Cardinals and Archbishops to have half Indian Jesuit, St. Garcia
Gonzales, and Blessed Joseph Vaz declared Patron Saints of India. I visited
him in Udaipur in 2006 when I went to incredible Rajasthan and some other parts
of north India for the first time. I was recovering from cancer and had come
to Jaipur to do Panchakarma. We prayed and talked together at length.
We informed Fr. Lesser about our Petitions to Pope Benedict in 2012 and to Pope
Francis in 2014 for the Canonization of St. Joseph Vaz. We are happy that he
lived to hear that three of our Petitions were printed in the final Positio
submitted to Pope Francis and to the consistory of Cardinals before they voted
to approve the canonization. And to know that he lived to see that
canonization on television as it actually took place this year on January 14th
in Sri Lanka. Our bond with Fr. Lesser has been a deep and meaningful one for
the last 15 plus years. He has enriched our thinking and spiritual awareness
through his life of sacrifice and inter religious works. All of us will surely
miss his warm and thoughtful spirit.
We are sure that he is smiling down on us today in the company of St. Joseph
Vaz!
Filomena Saraswati Giese, President
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