St. Arnold’s Seva Sadan

Our Vision: 
Sharing God’s Love with all in dialogue towards Harmony.

Our Mission: 
We share God’s love in our multi-cultural and multi-religious scenario through dialogue of life and action with all people and become builders of peace and universal harmony. We strive to involve all sections of people in planning, decision-making and implementation of projects and promotion of apostolates to make the poor and the marginalized communities such as Tribal and Dalits to be self reliant, self-affirming and peace loving

HOW  IT  ALL  STARTED: 
St. Arnold’s Seva Sadan was started as a house for retired Indian and foreign missionary of the SVD.  The initiator was Rev. Fr. Alois Klopper, Regional Superior from 1966 -1972. Construction works started in 1972 by Br. Hand Kieras SVD.  The plan was made by the architect, Fr. Bureau SVD at Nemi.. The name of the house came from Fr. Joachim Mocha, Ishgarh who won the prize of Rs. 50 of the competition. From 1936 to 1974, the Regional House was located on the premises of Sat Prachar Press, Residency Area. The present Provincial House, St. Arnold’s Seva Sadan, 7/1. Boundary Road was blessed on 8th December 1974 at 5.45 pm. It was the day of silver jubilee celebration of Br. Aidan’s Final Vows, jubilee Mass to be followed by get-together and felicitations. It was Fr. Klopper who started the new Regional House in Indore which is also a place for the old confreres to stay later on if they so wish. The following confreres resided at St. Arnold’s Seva Sadan were Fr. Thomas Anand Anithottathil SVD, Regional Superior, Br. M. Michael SVD, Regional Procurator, Br. Hans Kieras SVD, civil Engineer, Br. Justin Lakra SVD, accountant in St. Paul’s Primary School, Br. Dominic Wiergourk SVD, accountant at St. Paul’s H.S. School, Br. Joseph Anthu SVD, House Master. Most of the rooms were not furnished since they were not used.

The transfer of Indore Mission by the Propaganda to the Society of the Divine Word took place in 1931. The first two SVDs to reach Indore, India were Frs. Peter Janser SVD and Leo Krzeminski SVD on 4th November 1932. They were to work under the Bishop of Ajmer and both were given their assignment. Fr. Peter Janser SVD, the Mission Superior was appointed as the parish priest of Indore and Fr. Krzeminski as assistant.  Soon more members arrived at Indore in subsequent batches and were assigned to the Bhil area and to Khandwa region. Indore Mission was raised to the status of a Prefecture with Fr. Peter Janser SVD as its First Prefect Apostolic in 1935. In 1936, Indore Region was officially established and Fr. Stanislaus Wald SVD was appointed as its first Regional Superior. Fr. Wald SVD did his best to put the new SVD Region on a strong footing. Soon World War II broke out in Europe and all the German SVDs were sent to Internment camps. It was a great setback for the progress of the Region. Towards the end of the War, the missionaries were back in their respective missions and tried to do their best to put the mission stations in order. One of the biggest obstacles on the path of the missionaries was financial problems facing them. However, slowly Indore Region grew up and expanded. In 1948, Fr. Wald SVD was sent to Orissa to take up the Sambalpur Mission from the Jesuits. In his place, Fr. Valentine Zimmermann SVD was appointed as the new regional Superior. He was followed by Fr. Rodolf Schoepe SVD. The Region continued to make steady progress under the succeeding Regional Superiors, Fr. Henry Wichelmann SVD, Fr. William Wuelner SVD, Fr. Alois Kloepper SVD and Fr. Anand Antihottathil SVD. It is noteworthy that Fr. Anand was the first Indian to become a Major Superior in the history of the Region. It was during this term of office, that the SVDs extended their mission work to the Panchmahals District Gujarat, in the Diocese of Baroda. Fr. Anand SVD was succeeded by Fr. Eric Reckwardt SVD. It was during his time, the Region was raised to the level of a Province in 1978. The Provincial who succeeded Fr. Reckwardt were Fr. Leo Cornelio SVD, Fr. Thomas Thalachira SVD, Fr. Ignatius Thottappilly SVD, Fr. Charles Pinto SVD, Fr. Chacko Thottumarickal SVD, Fr. Alangaram Arockia Sebastian Durairaj SVD and Fr. Nicholas Martis SVD, Fr. Xaveirt T., Fr. Johny D’Souza and presently Fr. Jomon James.

It was during the term of office of Fr. Reckwardt that the Society extended its work to the archdiocese of Bhopal. It is good to remember at this juncture that soon after the arrival of the SVDs in India, Fr. Wald was sent to Bhopal as its first SVD Pastor for Bhopal was at that time part of the newly formed Indore Mission. Provincial Fr. Leo Cornelio SVD accepted the offer by the bishop of the newly erected diocese of Udaipur to take up evangelization in his diocese. It was during Fr. Ignatius Thottappilly’s term as Provincial that the Province extended its apostolate to Delhi archdiocese.

Provincial Fr. Chacko Thottumarickal SVD took the initiative to do periodical Pastoral Help-out in the north east state of Arunachal Pradesh. This practice became a regular feature in the course of time. Finally the province accepted to work in the dioceses of Dibrugarh, Tezpur and Guwahati on a permanent basis. The culmination of these activities under the leadership of Fr. Cletus Colaso SVD and Fr. Durairaj SVD was the creation of new Region: Guwahati Region including the north-eastern state of Tripura in 2006 by the Generalate.

 Our Regionals and Provincials