NJANGADE SWANTHAM PALLIACHAN | KAIROS GLOBAL | OCTOBER 2020

Author: Shaji Chacko Kattampally

Intro: Shaji Chacko reviews the Malayalam book, Njangade Swantham Palliachan, a collection of personal stories about Fr. Abraham Pallivathukal S.J., by some of his spiritual children.

Njangade Swantham Palliachan, is a Malayalam book published by Kairos Global. It has warm recounts of personal reminiscences of fifty-six people about Fr. Abraham Pallivathukal S.J., fondly and famously known as “Palli Achen”.  Thirty-two of them are known to me, and reading their accounts made me feel as though I was at one of the sharing sessions during the Jesus Youth meetings in Emmaus, the laity formation centre of the Kerala Catholic Charismatic Renewal. This book is definitely a trip down the memory lane, starting from recent times, and going way back to 1977 – forty-four years.   

This book mainly answers the question, who do you say Palli Achan is? The responses are straight from the heart and therefore quite emotional too. Narration after narration does not fail to cause emotional upheavals and tears. Tears, they say, are made up of 1% water and 99% feelings. And rightly so, I must confess that I too was so moved and overwhelmed when reading the book. I drifted away into the past with Palli Achan, when we had conducted programs of various kinds, including the numerous Campus Leadership programmes and Campus Meets. I have known him personally since 1985, from the pre-Jesus Youth ’85 conference, when I was just eighteen. In the Foreword of the book, Chackochan Njavallil also speaks for me, when he says, ‘Most of the experiences narrated here by contributors, are my experiences too!’ We see the attributes of Palli Achan as recollected in this book by forty-seven lay people, two sisters, six priests and one bishop, largely uniform and congruent. The interview of Palli Achan towards the end of the book corroborates these attributes as well. 

So, who is Palli Achan? A Jesuit of sixty-two years still going strong, who as one of the pioneers of Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Kerala, supported its youth wing from the late 70s to help form the Jesus Youth movement in the mid 80s, thereby becoming one of its founding fathers. He believes an active laity is an active Church. He is a history maker and a trend-setter, fostering creativity and leadership among young people in the Church and the society at large. A priest by vocation, he is a saint in action. No work is too mundane for him. Palli Achen reaches out to people – both young and the young at heart, to serve them in love. He is what a Priest ought to be and who a true Christian must be. His teachings and lifestyle are the basis of the Jesus Youth manifesto. Palli Achan’s life, undoubtedly, is his message.

In summary, I should say that between the two covers of this epic book, you will find a fond remembrance of a loving Dad by some of his spiritual daughters and sons, speaking for the rest of us. If a tear wells up in your eye reading the book, you must know, God the Father has just touched you through Palli Achan. 

Shaji Chacko works in Dubai and is one of the pioneer members of the Campus Team in Kerala. His wife is Jacqueline and they have three children.