Jesuit priests of St Xavier’s College have come together to start counselling sessions to comfort people afflicted by disease, death and depression.

Eight priests took calls from around 50 people on Saturday, the first day of the session, in two shifts — 10am to 12 noon and 2pm to 4pm. Most of the callers on the first day were in some way connected to the institution — former students, teachers, staff, or their family members.

But the counselling service is open to all. “We expect callers from different faiths, practices and walks of life…,” said an organiser.

One of the callers on Saturday was a man in his late 30s, affected by Covid-19 and on the seventh day of home quarantine. “Many young people are getting affected by the virus in the second-wave, many of them are dying. What if I don’t make it,” the caller is said to have asked.

“We have been doing a lot of philanthropic work in the Covid-19 times. But they have been on the physical side. Now, we must do something in comforting people suffering from loss of mental peace…,” said Reverend Father Dominic Savio, the principal of the college.

“Our Reverend Fathers are trained during their long training for priesthood to extend compassionate mental care to comfort disturbed minds,” he added.

A poster for the counselling sessions

The association of former students of the college is collaborating with the priests in this project.

The priests comprising the team of counsellors include Father Jeyaraj Veluswamy, rector of the St Xavier’s community (both school and college), Father Anil Gomes, the controller of examinations of the college and Father Peter Arockiam, vice-principal of the evening section of the college.

“All the counsellors are teachers. The Fathers will use their practical wisdom and decades of experience with people,” said a member of the association, who is a part of the core team of organisers.

Most of the calls on Saturday spoke of “isolation and helplessness, of being locked inside their own homes”, said priests attending to the calls.

“We are listening to the callers with patience. Listening is very important in these troubled times. They said they had many things to share but were hesitant in talking to family members. They were worried their aged parents would be more worried if they got to know about their children’s depression,” said Father Veluswamy, one of the eight counsellors.

Father Anil Gomes, another counsellor, got a call from Hooghly on Saturday. The caller was a man in his 50s, who had lost family members to Covid-19. “His house was damaged by Amphan last year. He was extremely panicked about the threat of another cyclone,” said Father Gomes.

The counselling facility is available during pre and post-lunch sessions in Bengali and English. The name and contact numbers of the Fathers with their time slots are on the college website.

The college had provided ration and essential commodities in different phases during the lockdown last year and distributed PPE kits to the hospitals. During the second surge of the pandemic, the college has offered its rural campus at Raghabpur in South 24-Parganas to the state government for setting up of care homes.