By Sr Lee Jose

It was in 2013 that I last saw Fr Felix Podimattam.

He was then living in Capuchin’s Seraphic seminary at Thellakam in Kottayam district of the southern Indian state of Kerala. I wanted his support and collaboration for the then comparatively new venture of ours – ‘Companion Magazine.’ He expressed his willingness to contribute to a column – ‘Never Stop Asking,’ – on moral questions from readers.

One would expect to meet in him a very strict and heady professor of moral laws. On the contrary, he always came across as a gentle, welcoming and genuine human being capable of attending even to the minutest details of hospitality. I thought to myself: “Here is a man who has interiorized the law of Christ” – love one another as I have loved you.

In fact, that is what he is inviting his readers to imbibe when he explains the Ten Commandments in the context of Christ’s Law of love. His explanation of the 10 Commandments, published from Media House, Delhi, is not a hard nut on moral laws of the Old Testament but an application of the Decalogue to the modern times, in the light of Jesus’ teachings.

His intimate friend and close collaborator, Dr Xavier Vadekkekkara remembers him as “a very candid person in his life as well as in his writings.”

There is no area in moral theology that he has not touched upon. But one of his earliest books, ‘A difficult problem in chastity – Masturbation,’ although widely criticized for its open consideration of a very delicate subject, did immense good to the Church and to all its readers. In the same way, his treatment on ‘Friendship in Celibate Life’ was misunderstood by many. However, in it he courageously proposed the deeper perspectives of genuine friendship, which goes far beyond sexual planes.

Going through his writings on moral issues what I perceive as his style is that of exposing the issue from different angles and leaving the reader to take an enlightened stand or decision for oneself. I think that is a very important and human stand in Moral Theology. Enlighten people on the issue from different angles – he would quote profusely from scholars of different thinking – and leave us to make personal conclusions. Of course many expected that he makes general conclusions which he hardly did.

Although he invited much criticism, he never pulled back; instead, he kept speaking the truth with love. He taught in many seminaries conducted classes to many forums including bishops and priests. But he always preserved his simplicity of life, walking humbly before the Lord.

The Vatican, in the time of Cardinal Lourdu Samy had held an enquiry on him. At the end it was closed realizing that there was nothing unorthodox in his teachings. All that they asked him was to write an article in one of the Indian publications, which he did in ‘Indian Currents.’

He was a profuse writer authoring about 135 titles, all related to moral theology.

As I bow to his mortal remains, I treasure in my heart the experience of having known and related to a genuine human being, a true son of St Francis of Assisi.

(Sister Lee Jose is the former editor of Companion Magazine.)