Born: Lodi (Lombardy), November 25, 1823.
Priestly ordination: June 7, 1846.
Took the habit: Marseilles, September 10, 1847.
Vows: N.-D. de l’Osier, September 11, 1858 (464).
Left the Congregation: 1865.
Jules César Mola was born in Lodi, Italy, on November 25, 1823. After his ordination to the priesthood on June 7, 1846, he left as a missionary for Ceylon. He was ministering in the vicariate of Colombo in 1851 when Bishop de Mazenod, at the request of Propaganda, sent four young missionaries to the vicariate. They did not follow the customs of the Goans or even of the priests from Lombardy. The Oblates were reported for having devoted their attention to young people and given Communion to youngsters of twelve or fifteen years. In a letter of Bishop de Mazenod addressed to Father Semeria and dated July 10, 1855, he wrote of “the false reports of the unworthy Mola”. In 1857 Father Mola asked to be admitted to the Congregation. Father Semeria sent him to France and he began his novitiate in the presence of Bishop de Mazenod, in the House of Saint-Louis, Marseilles. He continued his novitiate in Notre-Dame de l’Osier where he took vows on September 11, 1858. He would have chosen to remain in France and in the General Council of June 28, 1858, his name was put forward as superior of church school in Vico. The Founder sent him to Ceylon and on October 16, 1858, he wrote to Bishop Semeria: “I have found him to be quite admirable and, in all my dealings with him, he seems charming, perfectly agreeable and full of good sense and reasonableness.”
In Ceylon, Father Mola was put in charge of the schools in the vicariate of Jaffna. He wrote a report on the situation that is mentioned in Missions OMI, 3 (1864), pp. 309, 320, 463-511. According to Father Batyron (Le diocèse de Jaffna et les Oblats, ms. Jaffna 1907, pp. 154 and following): Father apostatised on February 7, 1865. He became a Protestant and found employment in the vicariate of Colombo. The minutes of the general council for March 17, 1865, says: “Father General informed the council of a fact which caused consternation, namely: the apostasy of Father J. C. Mola, missionary in Jaffna. This Father has not only trodden his oath underfoot, but through pride and immorality has given up his faith, giving as the motive of his conduct, that he finds it impossible to adhere to the teachings of the encyclical Quantum cura. The council could do nothing other than deplore a behaviour which had so far been unheard of in the Congregation.”
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
