Fr. Charles Law, S.J.

A Poet in the Science Lab with Documents on Social Justice

Well, the psychologists and anthropologists are at a dilemma here. “Charlie Law” seems to contradict almost all the “natural laws” concerning human nature. You might ask, then, what is this new thing called “Charlie Law? Hold on … ! This is not something like Newton’s law of motion. We are talking about a person. Waooh! That is strange! Yet, that is the fact.

If you want to meet him for a physics problem, sit at the left side of his table. His physics file is usually kept there. If your question is on social work, stand near the right side of his table. All his notes on social work are piled up on the right. Now, do you want to read his poems? Go to his private room in the residence and search for green or white files on the shelf. Then, what are those papers on the middle of his table? Oh. no… no. … don’t touch those! Those are his unfinished articles about social injustice in Nepal. You see, here we are; the sum total of all these things put together means that we get Fr. Charlie Law. Yes, he is a rare combination of a literary writer, a science teacher, and a resolute social worker!

He was born on September 22, 1931, in Chicago. He and his younger brother, Phil, were the only children of his parents. His father though being a doctor and his mother being a graduate in Music, both lived a very simple life because those were depression years. His early inspiration for social service was from his own father. Though his father was not very religious in his early days, as he was just out of the army, after marriage, he wanted to straighten out his life a bit. So his family tried to give 10% of their earning to charity, to the missions, even after they had their bank broken and all their money lost at one time. Fr. Charlie’s mother was quite as religious as any mother.

One of the occasions which probably affected him and attracted him towards the religious life the most was the experience he had when he went with his father to a Trappist Monastery for a retreat.

He attended the parish grammar school up to Class Eight. Then, he went to Loyola Academy for high school studies. It is quite amusing to learn that the column giving his mother’s name on his application form for the entrance test to Loyola Academy was filled in as “Mother,” because even as a 13-year-old boy he didn’t know his mother’s name! However he did well there, and after completing high school he went to Loyola University for his college studies.

Slowly he worked out his vocation though he had the plan also to become a military officer or a doctor. He joined the Jesuits on 8th of August 1951. Fr. John Locke and Fr. Cap Miller were his novitiate companions. Charlie joined the novitiate a little earlier than the other two. In the beginning he was not so sure of what he was up to. So he didn’t have the desire to go to the missions. But during his Long Retreat he felt a call deep within him, and he was ready to go the missions. But he waited for his novitiate and juniorate to be completed to approach the provincial for permission.

It is interesting to learn that Fr. Law found himself to be gifted with a combination of tastes for science, literature, and communication, with 80%, 98% and 92% respectively, in his aptitude as well as preference tests. And he scored only 1% for clerical work. This would probably explain why he ends up writing poems and literary articles while preparing his physics lectures, and he leaves his table quite messy.

So in the juniorate and throughout his Jesuit life, he has written many articles, taken part in plays, done radio shows, etc. Now he has a collection of about 200 poems written by himself and many are published in various magazines. Some of his outstanding poems are: Respect: No Love Lost (It is on Torn Gafney); Queen’s Pawn Sacrifice; Green Light; Sweeper Boy; Don’ Pull That Curtain; Red Light for Evolution; One in Twenty; Wisps. He also wrote and published three books of personality/character development for youth.

In 1955, he went to Spring Hill in the southern part of the United States for philosophy and science studies. There he also had the chance to come in touch with social justice and the whole Negro question.

At first he volunteered to come to India. But later he was asked if he would like to go to Nepal instead. He said that it was fine too. However, it was only after he received the final green-light to go to Nepal that he went to a map to find out exactly where it was. Since he couldn’t get his visa in time, he had to wait till he finished his philosophy to come to Nepal.

In late 1958 he arrived in Nepal along with Fr. John Locke. After reaching Nepal he went to Godavari where he joined a community of ten Jesuits and started working with the hundred boarders there. Initially they all had a very hard life of waking up in early hours and getting the boys to study and so forth. The other three scholastics who were with him were Fathers Locke, Miller, and Gafney. Once when he and his companions Went to Dhulikhel for a picnic, a young boy invited him to his school because he had no science teacher there. So Fr. Law approached the superior to see if he could extend his regency for one more year in order to go to that school. But the answer was negative. So he went to Kurseong in 1961 and did his theology there. He was ordained a priest in 1964 along with Fr. Cap Miller And Fr. John Locke.

In 1969, when the idea of shifting the school from Godavari to the city was proposed, he was all for it. He moved along and was made the hostel man in charge which he continued for ten years.

In the meantime, there was the New Education Plan in Nepal, and the school’s affiliation with the original Cambridge Examination Syndicate system was changed into Nepali S.L.C. Charlie taught science in Nepali for about four years. As a young priest he taught in the school with more of demonstrations due to his broken Nepali.

After the hostel was closed, he had a year sabbatical during six months of which he spent in a village called Namdu. He taught in a school there and found that he was the only teacher would come on time for the class. The height of his experiences there that while he was teaching there, a strike broke out in the school and his principal and the math teacher were taken to jail. He spent the rest of his sabbatical in America.

After coming back from the States he went to another village called Phalebas for four years. Unfortunately he had to face the consequences of another strike too! But this time the strike was in Jawalakhel to get Charlie Law back to the school to teach science. So he had to come back to St. Xavier’s. Finally, after a couple of months when everything was settled at Jawalakhel he went back to the village school where he stayed four years. Charlie considers his stay in the villages under the leaky roofs of in abandoned teashop and teaching in the school as the happiest times of his life. That was what he always wanted to do in Nepal, to go to the villages. Nevertheless, some people thought that he was wasting his time there and also there was greater need of teachers in Jawalakhel as they were losing teachers during chose days. It was 1985, by then, and he returned to the city, and he was appointed superior there.

More or less in the same year, the “Think Tank” for the discernment about beginning the I.Sc. began to work out the possibilities of its launch. Charlie was in integral part of it. Though it required a total transformation in the normal school situation, they went ahead. At first, the 1.Sc. was started at the school, but fro 4:00-8:30 P.M. He was the acting principal for the 1.Sc. section till it was moved to
the the present campus at Maithighar.

Around the year 1995, there was another discernment process, headed by Fr. Leo Cachat, to decide whether the campus should begin a bachelors programme or not. Initially Fr. Charlie was not in favour of it, but since more voted for it, they began the first of two bachelors programme. The plan was that they should start something which others were not doing. Thus, at first the Bachelors in Social Work and later the Bachelors in Environment Sciences were begun in the Campus. Opening the Social Work Dept. in the college is one of Fr. Charlie’s outstanding experiences. He has great hopes that it will have a remarkable effect on the country.

When someone asked what his interest could be in future, he said that in his old age, when he retires, he wishes to go to one of these villages and be a chaplain, be involved in adult education, teach little kids, and so on.

On speaking about the unity of our Region, Fr. Charlie says that unity does not always mean that all agree on the same point and never disagree. There can be theoretical and personal differences, yet unity can be maintained and it should be maintained. Nevertheless, unity is often divided due to personal problems. This has to be avoided. We should present our ideas without personalizing them. We have to be open to accept the different views of other individuals. We should visualize the problems and enemies as remaining out there, and we should join to get those enemies, rather than fighting among ourselves.

He is also of the opinion that we should not limit ourselves to the schools and colleges. We cannot go on only with the idea of having the best college or school in Nepal, because that is not the whole Nepal. We have to unite to get the common enemy of injustice out there. And this unity can come only when we are ready to disagree theoretically but still have personal love relationships with one another. We need to unite to get what we want and to push our ideas. In the process there will be and should be conflicts. But the conflict is not with one who is in the next room but with those outside those windows. Our life shouldn’t be one of just being charitable but meeting the real conflicts out there.

When he was asked to give a short message to the scholastics in the Region, he began, “My message is simply this: we need Jesuits with degrees or special training. Whether a Jesuit is in college or parish work, he should be able to make his mark in that area. He should have something creative to offer. This takes serious and deep studies. Fr. Paul Coutinho in our Jubilee retreat said that Jesuits should be trained to a Ph.D. level, or at least to a Master’s level.”

“We have to watch in Nepal that with our foreign funds we don’t become owners of fancy front buildings. We certainly need good facilities, and many Jesuits have dedicated much time and effort
constructing these buildings. I have been in construction in myself. But, and most importantly, behind the fancy-front must be Jesuits with solid training and be a able to work with Nepalese who are also highly trained. In the college, I work side by side With many teachers and part-time lecturers who are highly trained. It is not a matter of competing with them; it is a matter of working with them.”

“Also Jesuits have to be ready to move into new situations as the opportunity offers. We as a group cannot be mobile unless individuals are well trained in various fields. Jesuits are sometimes called the ‘Light Horse Cavalry’ of the Church. But to perform this function, we must have the horses!”

While the pounding lecture on Social Justice was going on, looking at the professor, one of the students asked his companion, “Is he a lawyer?”

His friend replied, “Well. I don’t know the exact difference, but I hear people calling him Fr. Law.”

(Text and photos from the 50th Anniversary Book of the Nepal Jesuit Society, 2001.)