Ignatius Monis: A dedicated social and community leader of Moodubelle

By Dr. Eugene DSouza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

Moodubelle, 27 February 2011: For a person who had worked in the Gulf or in any other city of India, life in the native village becomes quite difficult if he has to cut short his career and come back and settle down without much gainful activity. Such a person may face a kind of vacuum in his life and may go into a bout of depression without knowing what to do to keep himself busy. However, Ignatius Monis, who after working for some years in Mumbai and later in the Gulf, first in Oman and later in Saudi Arabia had to return to his native village under recessionary circumstances. Rather than sitting idle, Ignatius decided to keep himself busy and to contribute to the society in a meaningful way and got himself involved in social and community work and parish activities.

 

 

Born on 8th October 1947 as the eldest among five children, four sons and one daughter of late John Monis and Evelyn D’Souza, Ignatius Monis had primary and secondary education in Church Aided Higher Primary school and St. Lawrence High school, Moodubelle respectively completing SSLC in 1966. He continued his PUC education in the Poorna Prajna College, Udupi in science and proceeded to the Karnataka Polytechnic at Kadri, Mangalore where he did Diploma in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in automobiles.

 

  
Late John Monis and Evlyn Monis

 

While studying in the high school, Ignatius participated in sports and was a member of the School kabaddi Team and participated in various Kabaddi Tournaments at the Zonal level. He also did participate in school athletics meet winning a number of prizes. He also had an interest in cricket. He acted in few Kannada plays during the annual school day celebrations.

 

As his father, John Monis was working in a reputed company in Mumbai, after acquiring Diploma in Mechanical Engineering in 1970, Ignatius proceeded to Mumbai to earn his livelihood and soon acquired a job in Hindustan Leaver at Sewri as Project Assistant where he worked for four and a half years.

 

In order to be on his own, Ignatius thought of shifting his base to the Gulf and got an opportunity to go to Muscat in 1975 as Technical Store-keeper with a local company. After working for one year, Ignatius availed another opportunity to work in a larger company named Sharikat Pania Omania as Senior Store-keeper. This company was dealing with electronic items such as ACs, coolers, refrigerators, Central Cooling system, etc.

 

After working for four years in Sharikat Pania Omania till 1980, Ignatius found himself in a difficult position as there was a short period of recession leading to retrenchment in many companies. He tried to continue working in Muscat searching for some alternate jobs, but could not succeed. Being disappointed in not getting a suitable job in Muscat, Ignatius came back home and spent almost one year trying to find opportunities to go back to the Gulf.

 

In 1981, Ignatius once again decided to start his career and went back to Mumbai to appear for an interview for a job in National Paper Products in Dammam-Saudi Arabia and was offered the job of technical store-keeper where he worked for seven years till 1988. Once again the recessionary trend placed a big question mark on the future career of Ignatius. As many other companies, the National Paper Products also decided to reduce manpower and it went on a spree of reducing both manpower and salaries of those who wanted to continue.

 

Finding the situation quite precarious and finding no bright future in Saudi Arabia, Ignatius finally took a momentous decision to come back to his village-Belle in May 1988 and be with his family. Since then, Ignatius has been in his native village and got himself involved in the social service and parish activities.

 

 

The first major responsibility that Ignatius shouldered was that of the Gurkar of St. Thomas II ward which he efficiently carried on for a period of 12 years till 2000. During his first term of his Gurkarship, Ignatius was chosen to represent the Belle Parish Pastoral Council at the Shirva Varado level where he was chosen as the Varado Secretary. This post enabled Ignatius to be the member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council.

 

During this period Ignatius used to meet a number of Catholic Sabha leaders under whose guidance, he took initiative to start the Catholic Sabha Unit at Moodubelle Parish during the tenure of Fr. Harold Menezes as the parish priest in 1988. The founder president of the Moodubelle Unit of the Catholic Sabha was Peter Raphael Aranha, presently the headmaster of the Church Aided Higher Primary School, Moodubelle whereas Ignatius became the Secretary. In the same year, Ignatius was elected as the Secretary of the Shirva Varado Catholic Sabha when Dr. Edward Lobo was the Varado President. During this period, the Catholic Sabha of the Shirva Varado initiated the project of the Manasa Rehabilitation and Training Centre. Ignatius continued to be the Secretary of the Catholic Sabha Unit of Moodubelle and the Shirva Varado for two years till 1990.

 

In 1990, there was a rearrangement of the Varados and Moodubelle parish was affiliated to the Udupi Varado and Ignatius continued in his position as the Secretary of Udupi Varado Catholic Sabha. In 1991, Ignatius was chosen as the President of the Moodubelle Unit of the Catholic Sabha and also that of the Udupi Varado for a period of two years.

 

In 1992, Ignatius was elected as the Administrator of the Parish pastoral Council for a period of three years. During this period the land records of the church property were updated with the survey of the church land. During this period Ignatius was also the Udupi Varado Pastoral Council Secretary and by virtue of this was also the member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council. Meanwhile, he was also chosen as the President of the Udupi Varado Catholic Sabha for two years and the Secretary of the Catholic Sabha of the Udupi Province comprising of four Varados-Shirva, Udupi, Kallianpur and Kundapur.

 

 

After the completion of two years term as the Secretary of the Catholic Sabha of the Udupi Province, Ignatius was chosen as the President of the Udupi Province Catholic Sabha. During this period separate conferences were held exclusively for teachers at Sasthan, Gurkars at Udupi and entrepreneurs at Manasa, Pamboor and Provincial get-together at Mount Rosary Church, Kallianpur. As the president of the Udupi Province Catholic Sabha, Ignatius was the ex-officio trustee of the Manasa for a period of two years from 1998 to 2000. In the Catholic Sabha hierarchy, Ignatius rose up to the position of the Vice President at the Central Council of the Diocese.

 

As an initiative of the Catholic Sabha of Udupi District, the District Minority Cell was started and Ignatius was one of the founder members of this cell. He became its Taluk level Secretary, and later its president. He also became the district level Secretary as well as President of the Minority Cell. Due to the efforts of the Minority Cell, many of the Christian students could avail the scholarship facilities that are provided by the State as well as the Central Government.

 

One of the most significant achievements of Ignatius as the president of the Udupi Varado Catholic Sabha was the initiative that he had taken in starting the Udupi Catholic Cooperative Credit Society which was established in 1997 with the cooperation of the Kallianpur Varado. Over the years the Udupi Catholic Cooperative Credit Society has grown in terms of deposits and branches. As the President of the Board of Directors of the society, Ignatius took steps to open the first branch of the society at Malpe which was inaugurated on 8th January 2011.

 

On completion of twenty five years of the its establishment at the diocesan level, the Catholic Sabha set up the Fudaar Prathistan in 2004 with the aim of encouraging Konkani speaking students at all levels by honouring them for their academic achievements and also providing them training and financial support to appear for the competitive examinations such as IAS, IPS and KAS, etc. The Prathistan also has been giving scholarship to the needy students to pursue technical education. Ignatius Monis has been one of the committee members of the Fudaar Prathistan for the last three years.

 

Realizing the need to enable the poorer sections of the Konkani speaking community to avail medical facilities at cheaper rate, the Catholic Sabha of the Udupi Province in association with the Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal started the programme of Health Card to each and every family within the respective parishes since the last five years. Ignatius has been persuading all the families in the Moodubelle parish to avail the facility of the Health Card. According to him each health card holding family can avail the remission in the medical bills to the tune of Rs.30,000 and even more in certain cases.

 

Ignatius joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SSVP) in 1988 and has been an active member of this charitable parish association. He served the SSVP as treasurer, secretary for a number of terms and presently he is the president of the society. He is also the current convener of the Small Christian Community (SCC) and also a member of the Communion Ministry since twenty years. He had been to Kolkata, Hyderabad and Karwar to participate in All India Catholic Union conferences. In order to have a deeper understanding of the church law, Ignatius attended eight days seminar on Canon Law at NBCLC in Bangalore.

 

 

Ignatius does not believe in lavish celebrations of birthdays or wedding anniversaries. He feels that if at all he has to celebrate such landmarks in life, he should do it along with the less fortunate people who are in various rehabilitation centers. Thus, he celebrated his thirtieth wedding anniversary at St. Antony’s Home for the Aged in Mangalore; sixtieth birthday at the Manasa Rehabilitation and Training Centre, Pamboor; and other birthdays at Sion Home for the Mentally Challenged at Belthangady and the Ozanam Home for the Aged at Kallianpur.

 

Realizing the damage that alcoholism causes to a person’s physical and mental health as well as the families of an alcoholic, Ignatius has been actively involved in the de-addiction programme of the alcoholics. It was chiefly due to his efforts that a number of alcoholics have been rehabilitated. Ignatius has been also helping the hospitalization of mentally challenged elderly people.

 

Since two years, Ignatius Monis has been a member of the Lions Club of Moodubelle. Presently he is the Vice President of the Lions Club.

 

Ignatius has a rare gift of leading prayers. During the journey of St. Lawrence through the Wards of the Belle parish as part of the Centenary Celebrations, Ignatius led prayer service in each and every house of St. Thomas II Ward of which he is a resident. He has been a much sought out person to offer ‘shradhhanjalis’ on the occasion of funerals and memorial masses at the end of the week, month or death anniversary.

 

 

Though he had been a member and office bearer of a number of associations, Ignatius has been sincerely carrying on his responsibilities attending the meetings regularly and carrying on all those activities required of the post. He says that anyone who is dedicated to social service should carry on his not with the expectation that they should get something in return for their service, but to sincerely offer to the society what he can as per his ability.

 

Speaking further, Ignatius said that one has to sacrifice and set aside some time for the benefit of the society in general. One should be honest and sincere in his dealings with his authorities and fellow members. Ignatius also says that he never craved for any position. However, whenever he was elected or chosen for any post, he tried to give his best and sincerely carry on the responsibilities that were part of the posts that he has held so far. He further says he could carry on with the grace of God and prayers as well as the sport of the family and cooperation of other members.

 

Being sincere, honest and straight forward, Ignatius ventured into the political arena with a hope to cleanse the system. He even contested the Grama Panchayat elections twice, but he did not succeed in becoming the member of the local body. However, he never regrets for not being able to win these elections as he feels that he cannot do certain things to win election which are against his conscience.

 

 

Among the siblings of Ignatius Monis, Robert is presently residing in Kolalgiri with his family; only sister, Hilda (Sr. Nascita) joined the Congregation of Carmelite Sisters of St. Theresa of Avila (CSST) and after serving in many places in Karnataka and Kerala is presently in Mysore; Mark and Rony live in Mumbai with their families.

 

 

Ignatius married Romalia of Moodubelle in April 1977. They have three children-Ivy, Ivar Oswald and Inma. Ivy who has completed PC BSc Nursing is married to Roshan Vas and both of them are working in Ireland. Son-Ivar Oswald after completing MSc in Electronics is presently working for the IBM in Bangalore. Inma, who has studied up to BSc and completed B.Ed., is married to Anil Fernandes and both of them reside in Mumbai.

 

Looking back at the 63 years span of his life, Ignatius Monis is quite happy and contented. Children being away pursuing their own careers, Ignatius lives with his wife Romalia and mother Mrs. Evelyn and takes good care of them. He has not slowed down his social and community activities. Being soft-spoken and mostly quiet, Ignatius feels that his actions should speak for themselves. There is no doubt that the many activities that Ignatius involved in the social and community spheres as well as at parish level speak loudly about the dedicated service of Ignatius Monis who is a role model for those who would like to settle down in their native village and live a meaningful and service oriented life.