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NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN CHURCH!
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NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN CHURCH!

RELIGION September 26, 2025 , by

By Dr Olav & Deborah Albuquerque

SOMETIMES, those in authority whom we respect, abuse their position to harass subordinates who have no choice but to tolerate the harassment. Father Cherubim Tirkey, who won the ICPA Award in Hindi journalism, is one such Catholic-scholar priest who put up with such alleged harassment forcing him to quip, “There is no absolute freedom of speech within the church,” which seems like a sweeping statement.
Fr Tirkey worked among the tribals in Bihar and Jharkhand. He is fluent in Hindi apart from English, which is why he won the Swami Devanand Chakkungal Award for his contribution to Hindi literature. This is according to Pushpa Sekunda Tete, who accompanied Fr Tirkey to the 30th IPA Convention at Pune, where he was given the Swami Devanand Chakkungal Award for his contribution to Hindi literature.
Fr Tirkey was a professor of church history at the St Albert’s Seminary at Ranchi when late Cardinal Telesphore P Toppo, who was the former Archbishop of Ranchi, allegedly signed just a two-line letter ordering this Catholic priest to stop visiting the seminary to teach church history. “There were no reasons given in his two line order which left me puzzled because I never taught anything against the Catholic doctrine to those seminarians aspiring to become priests,” he said.
Sixty-seven-year old Fr Tirkey joined the seminary in 1975 and took his vows to become a priest in April 1992, after listening to a voice calling him to serve the poor people of Jharkhand. Not all of us are called to serve the people, but those who do and listen to the voice of God are blessed. He graduated with honors in history from St Xavier’s College at Ranchi and got an MA degree in medieval history from Lucknow University. He was a lecturer in history in St Joseph’s College at Torpa in Ranchi and finished his ecclesiastical studies in Rome. He did his licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical Urban University in Rome and also acquired a doctorate in the same discipline. He taught church history at St Albert’s Seminary in Ranchi.
“TARANG BHARTI”
APART from being the secretary of the Regional Bishops Council at Bihar and Jharkhand he was a founder member of “Tarang Bharti,” a Hindi weekly which was launched in May 2002 by the Regional Bishops Council of Bihar and Jharkhand and Andaman. It was shut in 2004 due to lack of finance and was restarted with Bishop incent Barwa in 2006 with some funds put in by the tribals who had affection for Fr Tirkey. “Tarang Bharti” published 16,000 copies but the late Cardinal Toppo was unhappy because he imagined without any reason that the “Tarang Bharti” was not sufficiently pro-Adivasis, and was promoting one regional political party and not sufficiently pro-Congress. These were totally false, affirms Fr Tirkey, in an exclusive interview to “Goan Observer.”
Fr Tirkey handed over “Tarang Bharti” to Cardinal Toppo in 2008, to run it the way he chose, but he was unable to sustain it and had to finally shut down. Fr Tirkey launched the “Jharkhand Express” in 2009 which is still being published every fortnight and has now completed 17 years.
In 2006, Fr Tirkey became its editor until Cardinal Toppo ordered it to be shut in 2008. Strangely, the newspaper had minor problems of finance and circulation which did not justify its closure, because the tribals in the region avidly subscribed and read this newspaper.
Fr Tirkey contributed prolifically to “Jharkhand Express,” a Hindi fortnightly newspaper which he founded and published regularly since 2009. This newspaper, “Jharkhand Express,” which was almost a single handed venture with some financial and other aid, focused on the social, economic, educational and cultural issues that affected the tribals and had a direct bearing on their lives.
HINDI AUTHOR
THE surprising aspect is that Fr Tirkey wrote several books in Hindi, including the marriage traditions and marital problems among the Adivasis of Chhota Nagpur, Preparation for Marriage and Prenuptial Investigation such as reading the banns in church before a marriage is solemnized. The tribals have their own customs which are at slight variance from the mainstream church. Fr Tirkey did a PhD in their customs and marriage rituals which is no easy task. What is even more stupendously difficult is translating this PhD thesis into Hindi, it was accomplished by Fr Tirkey after he acquired his doctorate.
Now, one would imagine that having such a scholar to teach seminarians would be appreciated. But for some unknown reason, Cardinal Toppo issued him a two line order directing him not to teach in the seminary. Apparently, some rivalry with another bishop may have fueled this but what shocked Fr Tirkey is that there was no ostensible reason for issuing this two line order stopping this priest scholar from teaching in the seminary. Thereby, the seminarians were deprived of the knowledge of a scholar priest.
Other awardees were Fr Anthony Charanghat of “The Examiner,” who won the Fr Louis Careno Lifetime Achievement Award. Fr Charanghat joined “The Examiner” in 1973 and rose to become its editor in 1994. He continued as editor until 2004, for 30 long years, and was an assistant to four cardinals which was no more mean task.
Two other awardees were Sr Lizzy, known as the “camera nun”, and Reshel Bretny Fernandes.
(Dr Olav Albuquerque holds a PhD in law and is a senior journalist-cum-advocate of the Bombay high court.)

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