Alternative Health Care Centre run by Fr. M.J. Peter of Dumka -Raigunj Jesuit Province in the Kalidanga village in Bhirbum district of West Bengal (India), around 220 kms West of Calcutta is today known by the ‘miracle home’ of India.
The dreams and hopes of several people get crushed amidst surrounding stone quarries where the poor are employed. Fatal health hazards make them either physically disabled or paralytic. The area is also infamous for the deadly arsenic contamination in the water. Arsenic causes calcium formation in the joints which subsequently cripples people. The Government provides them with no facilities for better health care, transportation or education. Many poor die here due of malnutrition and other incurable arsenic-related diseases. But now, thanks to Fr. Peter, the poor have a ray of hope: the Alternative Health Care Centre provides a new ‘healing formula’ for those incurable sick people, rejected by the allopaths.
Kalidanga is now known as India’s best well-equipped Magneto-Physio Therapy Centre. Fr. M.J. Peter reached Kalidanga as an ordained priest in 1988 and he was involved in various youth and pastoral ministries. His multi-faceted talents found expression in the areas of sports and games, arts and drama, karate, training the youth for job opportunities, etc. Later, in the early 1990s, he was introduced to the healing power of Magneto therapy.
The Kalidanga Centre for Magneto-Physio-therapy is a ‘miracle home’ for all those patients who get treated there. They come on wheelchairs, stretchers or piggyback and find a new and rejuvenated life to go home walking , in praise of God. This Centre is a wonder world for those who suffer from paralytic and degenerative diseases, with its various medical equipments for diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Besides vibrators and equipment for massages, the clinic has equipment for traction and different kinds of physical exercises. Fr. Peter says, “With the help of Magneto- and electro- therapy and physical exercises, administered with homeo medicines, I can uproot and eliminate any paralytical disease”
“As a social worker and a youth coordinator I was forced to confront the stark reality of people’s pains and sufferings. Seeing the prolonged suffering of the poor with incurable diseases, brought tears to my eyes” says Fr. Peter with deep emotion in his voice. “I challenged myself. I asked myself, what is the goal of my priesthood amidst people’s suffering and how can I become a better instrument of God? Can I relieve their pain? I began to reinvent a new meaning for my priesthood: to help the poor overcome their miseries. My search for an alternative medicine for chronic diseases took eight years of research and study of Magneto therapy”.
“When I see a cripple able to walk after a few months of my treatment, my eyes well up with tears of joy”, says Fr. Peter. He narrates a story of a patient who visited him two years ago. Mr Mustaf had a paralytic stroke which incapacitated his movements. He had undergone all the medical treatment possible before coming to the Alternative Health Care Centre . His six months stay at the Centre healed him completely.
Another patient lacks no words to express how he encounters the divine power. ‘We experience a permeating presence of the divine in the campus. Every patient who enters the campus says a prayer first, and then the patient begins the treatment. If God exists He is in this ‘miracle home’ and amongst us’.
Fr. CM. John, the administrator of the clinic says: ‘It was not very easy for us to open the hospital in Kalidanga. We ran into many troubles before grooming it to its present shape. At first, there was tough opposition from the villagers themselves who were instigated by the local medical fraternity. Then, came a malicious campaign by village quacks who saw the crowd coming to the hospital and spitefully spread rumors against Fr. Peter’s humanitarian work, accusing him of converting people to Christianity. They frightened people saying that the electronic equipment used for the healing purposes would suck the blood of the patients and the victims would die gradually. But this did not dampen his enthusiasm; rather it reinvigorated his commitment’.
Fr. Peter, who first was rejected and accused of having the prime motive to convert people to Christianity, is today revered by one and all as the messiah of Kalidanga. His name has many synonyms. He is fondly known as ‘Dr. Father’, ‘saviour of the poor’, son of Jesus, friend of the poor. One is surprised to see the increasing number of patients flocking to Alternative Health Care centre . He is the hope of the hopeless but loves to stay away from the limelight. People who have no other options, as a last resort, try out the Magneto- Physio Therapy, and soon experience themselves regaining their lost vitality and hope. The hundreds of patients who are cured are vibrant witnesses to the effective healing of the treatment. The ‘Priest Doctor’ attends to an average of 100 cases a day. Most of the patients are either hapless sufferers of chronic ailments or cases rejected as incurable by many renowned medical hospitals in the country.
Today the Alternative Health Care Centre at Kalidanga is the cynosure for people from far and wide, towns and villages. The Clinic remains also a symbol of harmony among the rich and the poor, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and all the others.