A number of Jesuits from India worked in Zimbabwe since Independence but only one persevered; Andrews
Fr Andrews, from Karanchira, Kerala in India was born on the 1st of January 1932 and he died on May 28, at the age of 90 in Harare.
He joined the Society aged 19 in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, in 1951.
Besides the ordinary studies normal for every Jesuit, he did B.Sc. in Zoology, a B.Ed., both in Palayamkottai, India and a Ph. D. in Ethics in the Gregorian, Rome.
For his regency, he returned to Palayamkottai and he was ordained in Kureseong, West Bengal, in 1963.
He worked as a parish priest for a year in Llayarasenedal and had a further year teaching in a secondary school in Nagercoil.
Then he became a Major Seminary professor at Trichy, 1968-75 with a gap in the middle.
In 1975 he became rector, as well as being professor, at Karumathur, Tamil Nadu.
It was in 1986 that he came to Africa and took up teaching at the major Seminary at Chishawasha.
When the Seminary split in 2000, he followed the philosophers to St Augustine Seminary in Bulawayo where he remained until 2015 and returned with them to Chishawasha, following the closure of this formation house in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo.
In 2020 he retired to Chishawasha Mission until his death in Harare.
So much for the bare bones of his life.
Fr George Croft SJ, one of the eldest Jesuits in Zimbabwe, says Fr Andrews ‘was deeply faithful to his work and had great compassion for poor people, literally lifting one out of the filth into which he had fallen in Chennai.’
He could grip a congregation with his stories with which he illustrated the gospel.
But the most telling story is of his putting his whole career at risk by ‘shaking the boat’ when he became rector in India.
India is a country where caste, the division of society into social/cultural strata, is still in the blood of the people.
Even in a Catholic university, people sat in the lecture halls according to caste. Andrews challenged this and wanted to do away with divisions. It seems this was not appreciated and he had to leave and rebuild his life in Africa.
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