Father Bonifice Tigga’s installation comes only days after he learned of his new appointment which was announced last week.
It happened very quickly he said. “I was told of my appointment on December 22 and I had to take up my duties yesterday.”
Father Tigga replaces Father Lawrence Maniyar who has completed two three-year terms in the office.
Fr Tigga was born in 1966 in a small farming village in Chhattisgarh, in central India and went to Nepal in 1988 after completing his bachelor’s degree in Bhopal.
As a boy he said he and his nine brothers – five of whom also became priests – used to help his father in the fields before and after attending a mission school run by diocesan fathers.
“On my very first day at school a teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said a ‘Sister’ and everybody laughed. I said that because nuns used to bring sweets to my home and I wanted to become like them,” Fr Tigga laughed.
Since being ordained a Jesuit priest in 1999 he has served as a principle in three large St Xavier schools in the country the most recent being St Xavier’s Godavari school in Kathmandu.
In 2007 he also completed his masters degree at Loyola University in Chicago.
Regional Jesuit Superiors are directly appointed by Jesuit Generals in Rome after a secret ballot by members of the Society of Jesus.
There are currently 67 priests in Nepal and 35 are Jesuits. The congregation first arrived in the country 60 years ago just as Nepal opened its doors to foreigners.