Fr Shiju Paul SVD has arrived to take up ministry in the Australia Province after almost 30 years as a missionary in India, various parts of Africa and the United States.

Fr Shiju said he is open to working wherever he is assigned in the Province, but has a special interest in living and working with Australia’s First Nations peoples and providing presence, deep listening and accompaniment.

Born and raised in Kerala, India, Fr Shiju joined the SVD minor seminary in Kerala in 1985. He professed his first vows as a Divine Word Missionary in 1992 and his final vows in 1997 when he was also ordained to the priesthood in the Syro Malabar Rite.

“I was drawn to religious missionary life after watching my aunt with the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, serving the poor,” he said.

Following his ordination, Fr Shiju was appointed as Vocation Promoter at the same seminary he attended, St John’s Mission Seminary in Kerala.

His first overseas missionary assignment was to Zambia, where he served as Parish Priest at St Francis Catholic Church in Livingstone from 1999-2002.

He then worked for three years in the Philippines at the Asian Religious Formation Institute and the SAIDI Foundation and completed a Master’s in Pastoral Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University.

In 2005, Fr Shiju headed back to Africa, becoming Assistant Novice Master at Divine Word Novitiate in Ghana.

From 2008 to 2014 he was elected Provincial Superior for the SVD Botswana-Zambia-South Africa Province.

After his time as Provincial, Fr Shiju served as Parish Priest in Botswana for three years before being assigned to the United States as formator of Divine Word Theologate in Chicago from 2017-2021.

Prior to his assignment to Australia, Fr Shiju served from 2021 to 2025 with Jesuit Refugee Services, living in refugee camps at the border of Sudan, in Maban, South Sudan.

“In 2025 after completing two contracts with Jesuit Refugee Services, I returned to India. In early 2025 President Trump issued a Stop Work Order, practically ending all funding support to refugee projects overnight,” he said.

“The major source of JRS operations in refugee camps was provided by the Bureau of Population, refugees, and Migration (BPRM). The SVDs returned to South Sudan only in November 2025 after we were forced out in 2016.”

Health challenges also prompted Fr Shiju to look for a new assignment in an area not so subject to tropical and sub-tropical diseases.

“During life in refugee camps, I was frequently infected with malaria and fell sick five times each year during rainy season,” he said.

“So, I contemplated a change and the possibility of doing Aboriginal ministry was suggested.”

After initially settling in at the SVD’s Marsfield community in Sydney, Fr Shiju will get to know the SVD’s ministries in Central Australia, including Alice Springs and Santa Teresa.

“I will spend some time in the Northern Territory with a longer vision of doing ministry with the First Nations peoples, or wherever I am needed. My own personal preference would be living among the Aboriginal people, irrespective of the place,” he said.

He said he feels sure that his decades of missionary experience around the world will assist him in the challenges of getting accustomed to ministry in a new country and different cultures.

“During my ministry in different capacities, whether in parish, formation, leadership and humanitarian work, I have ventured to accompany the most vulnerable persons such as those living with HIV/AIDS, LGBTQIA++ folks in St Bonaventure House in Chicago, and in extremely deprived environments of camp settings for forcefully displaced persons by the ongoing war in Sudan/South Sudan,” he said.

“My hope for my collaborative ministry in Australia is discovering our shared humanity through presence, deep listening and accompaniment. This way Jesus’ presence in our world becomes truly incarnate.”

Fr Shiju said he is inspired by a quote from Fr Greg Boyle SJ that: “Scripture scholars contend that the original language of the Beatitudes should not be rendered as ‘Blessed are the single-hearted’ or ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ or ‘Blessed are those who struggle for justice’. Greater precision in translation would say, ‘You’re in the right place if … you are single-hearted or work for peace’. The Beatitudes is not a spirituality, after all. It’s a geography. It tells us where to stand.”

PHOTOS

TOP RIGHT: Fr Shiju Paul SVD who has arrived in the SVD Australia Province to take up ministry.

MIDDLE LEFT and BOTTOM RIGHT: Fr Shiju has spent much of his missionary life in Africa, working in Zambia, Ghana, Botswana and South Sudan.