Joseph Michael Willi

Joseph Michael Willi SJ (born September 29, 1824 in Lantsch / Lenz (Switzerland), † April 17, 1897 in Bombay (now Mumbai )) was a Jesuit , missionary to India and educator .

In the baptismal register he is entered with Joseph Michael, but he was called Joseph Anton, probably in memory of two older deceased brothers with this name. As a missionary he also used the English spelling, so he is known in India under the name Joseph Antony Willy.

Joseph Willi was born in Lantsch / Lenz in 1824 as the son of Valentin Anton Willi and Maria Barbara. Simeon was born. He was the eighth of eleven children in a simple farming family. His mother tongue was Romansh .

Study time

On October 1, 1844, his novitiate began with the Jesuits in Brig . On October 2, 1846, the yellow vows took place, followed by juniorate in Estavayer-le-Lac . In the turmoil of the Sonderbund War, the Jesuits had to flee across Lake Neuchâtel on November 10, 1847. The Jesuits were persecuted all over Europe at that time. The broken German province was faced with a choice: emigrate or go under. On June 3, 1848, 45 Jesuits sailed from Antwerp to New York . Father Willi was assigned to the Missouri Province. He finished his philosophy degree in St. Louis . In the fall of 1849 he became Prefect and Professor in the College and Convict of the Jesuits in St. Louis. In autumn 1850 in the same position at the Franz Xaver College in Cincinnati . Autumn 1851 returned to Europe. Studied theology in Leuven , Maastricht and Cologne . 1854 Primiz in Achen , Terziat in Koblenz . Afterwards student chaplain in Bonn .

School founded in Karachi

On August 13, 1858 was the whole mission of Bombay-Poona the German Jesuit Province handed over after previously been about 10 Jesuit Bishop Anastasius Hartmann in the Vicariate of Poona had come to help. Two priests were sent there. On October 27, 1858, Father Meurin and Father Willi met in Bombay. Willi became head of an orphanage in Byculla, a suburb of Bombay. In 1859 he took over the pastoral care of the Catholic soldiers in the military camp in Karachi . The parish developed into the model parish for the whole mission. A special concern of Father Willi was the support and education of the children; therefore schools had to be founded. In 1861 he opened the St. Patrick's School for boys. For the time being, it only comprised the elementary classes, but was to be expanded into a grammar school. He held the lessons himself. When the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross from Liège had been successfully won over to help in the mission, in March 1862 he was also able to open the St. Joseph School for girls. St. Patrick and St. Joseph later developed into high schools and are still some of the most prestigious schools in the country today.

Bombay

In January 1865 he returned to Bombay and served as vicar general and secretary of Bishop Steins , as military chaplain of the Colaba garrison , preacher and confessor to St. Anne and the father of the wise, and professor of English at the Byculla high school.

In June 1866 he was appointed director of the Bykulla grammar school. This grammar school was previously without a school building of its own until Bishop Steins started building a new one. The builders were the Jesuit brothers Lau and Klüwer. The new building was completed on April 1, 1867. Father Willi was appointed first superior and head of studies of the new college for Europeans and elected to the Senate of the University of Bombay . On December 2, 1867, St. Xavier's College began working for the locals. The architect was Father Karl Wagner SJ , and the builder was Leu and Klüwer. The driving force behind the project, however, was Father Joseph Willi, who also became the first director. In 1872 the buildings were completed.

Mangalore

In the autumn of 1879, Father Willi was transferred to Mangalore in order to found a college there. A year earlier, the Mangalore mission had been given to the Jesuits of the Venetian Order. The mission was in a poor condition, and to start a school you needed a man with experience, skill and tenacious energy, and the Italian fathers had asked for the referral of the experienced Father Willi to help them during the early years .

On January 12, 1880, he opened St. Aloysius College in a private home. A university department could already be started in 1881 and affiliated with the University of Madras . A new building was built between 1882 and 1884. Father Willi was highly venerated in Mangalore, he was the "soul" of the whole company from day one. The rare one-man combination of rector, secretary, teacher, collector of school fees, choir director and the like was impressive. a. m.

Mission Superior

After six years he returned to Bombay. Here he was appointed superior of the Bombay-Poona Mission. When the Portuguese were the only colonial power in the East, the Pope had granted the Crown of Portugal the right of patronage ( padroado ). The Portuguese king thus acquired the right to appoint bishops and to distribute church offices. But at the same time the duty arose for him to establish numerous new dioceses. In the 19th century Portugal was no longer able to fulfill the commitments it had made. That is why Rome had long sent Vicars Apostolic to the newly developed colonial areas. The Portuguese bishoprics rebelled against it, and the so-called " Goanese schism " arose . The Goan schism did not end until 1862 with the appointment of an archbishop by the Pope.

Now Rome wanted to introduce dioceses instead of vicariates and bishops instead of vicars apostles. On this occasion, they wanted to finally abolish the patronage of Portugal. The old schism threatened to break out again. Rome had to give in to pressure from Portugal.

In this situation, Father Joseph Willi was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Vicariates of Bombay and Poona after Bishop Meurin, an avowed opponent of the patronage, resigned. At the end of August 1886 the “hierarchy” was introduced anyway. Bombay became an archdiocese with Poona as a suffragan . Father Willi had the delicate task of dividing up the property between the new dioceses. In 1887 Willi traveled with the new bishops to the Indian National Council in Allahabad (P. Porter SJ, Archbishop of Bombay; P. Beiderlinden SJ, Bishop of Poona) and resigned from his office as apostolic administrator. Now he could give himself completely to the inner workings of the mission. During this time he made many trips throughout the mission area.

At Christmas 1888 he resigned the office of the mission superior , devoted himself exclusively to the mission and took over the dharwarmission in the highlands of Dakkan . He was particularly effective in the area around Hubli (Hubballi) and Gadag. After a year he had to give up the mission for health reasons.

He worked as a school principal at St Vincent College in Poona for another 5 years . In 1895 he returned to St. Mary in Bombay as a spiritual director . He died in Bombay on April 17, 1897 and was buried in Sewree Cemetery.

literature

• Karl Thürer SJ, At the Gates of the East , Berchmanskolleg Pullach-Munich, 1933

Web links

• St Patrick's High School, Karachi
• St Xavier's College, Mumbai
• St Vincent's, Poona
• St Aloysius College, Mangalore
• Theo Haas: Willi, Joseph Michael. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Article of the Jesuits-Karnatka-Province (in English)