On Sunday March 14 Mariapuram became the
venue of a rarest of rare kind of celebration, namely,
the Sacerdotal “Saptati” of Fr Zucol who is 95 and
still active! Seventy years of priesthood is surely a
very rare grace; in Fr Zucol’s case, these seventy
years have been consistently active in a superlative
degree, and, also, richly fruitful.
Fr Zucol must have baptized (or received into the
Church) five to six thousand people; he founded and
established around 20 parishes (people with their
homes and other facilities, well-built churches with
priests’ residences, convents), with average 100–
150 families. For the converts and others (including
non-Christians) he has built or helped build over
9000 houses, dug or helped to dig thousands of
wells, distributed thousands of sewing machines
and domestic animals, given crores of rupees to
medical and other kinds of helps.
What Fr Zucol takes pride in and never tires of
repeating, however, is his having celebrated over
25000 Masses, hardly ever missing one. He also
remembers with gratitude and joy the realization
of his Big Dreams in the foundation of the Deena
Sevana Sabha, the Devamatha Ashram (of the
contemplative Rosarians) and the Ignatian Retreat
Centre (for ongoing faith formation).
Neither the Province nor the Diocese has the
precedence of such a celebration, and so it was
hardly a month prior to the actual date (March 9)
that we suddenly realized that it should not pass
uncelebrated. With the Bishop enthusiastically
supporting the idea, it was thought practical to call
together representatives of the parishes established
by Fr Zucol to plan the celebration. And so, we
decided upon a three tier celebration—Mass of
Thanksgiving on 9 March in all the parishes, inviting
Fr Zucol to all these parishes for a celebratory
Mass, and, also a diocesan level celebration on the
Sunday following 9 March. As for the expenses,
it was decided to take a pre-announced special
Sunday Collection in all the above mentioned
parishes, to be supplemented, if need be, by the
Diocese.
As it turned out, however, people contributed so
generously that, after meeting the expenses of
nearly Rs 100,000 the Celebration Committee
could present to the Bishop a balance of Rs 70,000
for priestly formation.
What was most remarkable was the actual
participation of the people. Whereas we had
expected maximum 2000 people, over 4000 braved
the distances and the summer sun and remained
till the end. It looked as though people had been
just waiting for an opportunity to demonstrate their
love, gratitude and esteem for their father and
mentor in faith.
For the Society’s part, Fr Provincial as well as the
POSA, Fr Edward Mudavassery concelebrated
the solemn Eucharist with Fr Zucol (alongside the
Bishop), felicitated Fr Zucol at the public meeting
following the Mass and shared the common
agape.
- J. Kottukapally
