By Jessica Easthope
Father Anup Bilung had never been to the United States, but this summer, you can find him celebrating Mass at Our Lady of Angels Church in Bay Ridge.
“This New York international hub, the multicultural ethnic groups and language groups that live here, and I had the firsthand experience of seeing those things—what I had studied in the textbooks,” Father Bilung said.
Father Bilung was born and raised in the Diocese of Sambalpur in the state of Odisha—a missionary stronghold in East India. He’s currently getting his Ph.D. at the College of St. Paul the Apostle in Rome, where he’s studying pastoral theology and human mobility.
Father Bilung says he’s already been able to experience the universal Church—all at once in Brooklyn.
“It’s like a big basket of flowers, a bouquet,” Father Bilung said. “Some may focus on the individual flowers and admire them, but others might see all of the flowers and how beautiful they are together.”
Where he’s from, multiculturalism isn’t celebrated in the same way as in the Diocese of Immigrants.
In 2008, his home was burned to the ground. Extremist groups began a violent campaign against Christians, killing more than 100 people—35 of whom were Catholics—and displacing more than 56,000.
“The state of Odisha has been very prone to religious persecution against Christians, but what happened in 2008, starting on the 24th of August, was really devastating,” Father Bilung said. “They started attacking churches, homes, burning down everything. Everybody was trying to escape.”
Father Bilung was in his pastoral year at the time. The violence and faith have defined his priestly mission. Today, many of the victims of those anti-Christian riots have received no justice.
“It was responsible for building my approach, my perspective, my personality, and also my own faith,” Father Bilung said. “So I wanted to be one of the guides to lead and educate them, to bring that light from the candle and light other candles.”
Now, as he navigates the United States for the first time, where Catholics can not only express their beliefs but celebrate them, he hopes to pass on the faith of those who could only dream of that freedom.
“It was a fearful situation in the entire diocese, but this brought them together,” Father Bilung said.