Fr. Vijayanand Shidonkar (Nicephero Rodrigues) SJ, was born on 19th December, 1947, in Vasco a Da Gama, Goa. He was the third of five siblings. He did his primary schooling at Mount Carmel, and High School at St. Xavier’s Loyola Hall, Ahmedabad. He joined the Society of Jesus for Gujarat Province on 8th June 1965 and pronounced his first vows on 9th June 1967. He was ordained on 30th October, 1978 in Vasco da Gama, Goa. After one year of pastoral year at Baroda, he did his Master’s degree in Social Work from TISS, Mumbai and secured a gold medal for the same. Later, he was at St. Joseph’s Parish, Gomtipur, as an assistant parish priest for one year and Parish Priest for eight years. He paid special attention for the faith formation of children. His work with youth helped some of them to enter religious/priestly life. For him, the golden period of his life was the years spent as pastor in Gomtipur. After spending a year at Sughad, he was appointed to Bharuch Parish as an Assistant PP. Later on he was appointed as Parish priest and superior. He worked as Parish priest in St. Xavier’s, Ahmedabad and Anklao. After a year of sabbatical, he spent one year at Nagara. He spent three years at the Jesuit Juniorate in Belgaum and three years at Loyola-Ahmedabad. I came in contact with Fr. Vijay in the year 1998. Our meetings were for spiritual sharing and confession, which continued till he breathed his last. His last appointment was in in Radhanpur mission. He was infected by the Corona virus in December 2020 and he left us on 7th February 2022. Dear Fr. Vijay, your smiling face and love for the urban poor touched many hearts.
KP Vincent, SJ
