Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - A great educator and a father for over 3 thousand young people. Fr. James Donnelly, a Jesuit priest originally from the U.S., has died at the age of 80 years, over 40 of them spent in Nepal.
Born in August 1929 in Cincinnati, after his ordination Fr Donnelly was immediately sent on mission to Nepal: to teach in the schools of St. Francis Xavier in Godavari and Jawalakhel (pictured with his students at the time). Since then he has spent his life teaching English to young Nepalese and also contributing to the definition of the National Education System Plan that was introduced in the country in 1970.
"He was my teacher and my icon," says Ranjeet Barale, one of the first students of the Jesuit priest. The boys who had Fr Donnelly as their teacher all remember him with gratitude and devotion. Yougendra Sakya, who today runs a hotel in Kathmandu says that Fr. Donnelly "made of his students feel special". Buddha Basnyat, now a doctor, remembers him as "a person full of life." He was an avid basketball fan and was enamoured of the Himalayan peaks. Basnyat describes him as "a man of magnificent humanity" and adds: "Now that he has left us I hope to be able to pass on to my children what he taught us."
At the funeral, held August 17 in the Cathedral of the Assumption of Dhobihat were former students, friends and brother Jesuits. Fr. Thomas Augustine, himself a Jesuit and teacher, says: "I have lost a great friend for whom Nepal was home and the Nepalese his people. He has contributed much to education in the country and his students will remember him always as an exceptional teacher and a devoted friend. "
