(Vatican News) Indian Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, a human rights and peace activist, mourns his fellow Jesuit Fr. Stan Swamy, who died on July 5 in Mumbai.
The ailing 84-year-old priest, affected by Parkinson’s disease and hearing impairment, was arrested on October 8 from Bagaicha, a Jesuit social action centre on the outskirts of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, on charges for alleged links with Maoist insurgents who were said to have been behind the violence in Bhima Koregaon village in Maharashtra state in January 2018.
Father Swamy has denied all charges against him saying Bhima Koregaon is “a place that I have never been to in all my life.”
Fr. Cedric of Gujarat Jesuit Province, He said Fr. Stan, who belonged to the Jamshedpur Jesuit Province, Jharkhand, loved the poor, the down-trodden, the marginalized and the excluded of society, especially the tribals or indigenous people, known as Adivasis in India. “He lived his life for them, he accompanied them on this journey for a more humane, just, equitable and dignified life. “From the day he was arrested, Oct. 8, till today, Fr. Stan had been in jail, incarcerated under the dreaded Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, for a crime, we know, that he did not commit,” Fr. Cedric lamented. For Fr. Cedric, “Fr. Stan is a beacon of hope”.
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