By Purushottam Nayak
Jharsuguda: Hundreds of people on June 25 attended the funeral of Father Thomas Vadackumkara, rector of a major seminary in Odisha.
The Divine Word priest died of a massive heart attack on June 22. He was 49. He headed the Divya Jyoti (divine light), a Divine Word seminary, at Sason under Sambalpur diocese.
Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar led the funeral Mass at St. Arnold’s Church, Jharsuguda. His mortal remains were laid to rest at the Divine Word provincial house cemetery in the same town, some 325 km northwest of the Odisha state capital of Bhubaneswar. Father Luvis Ronald Pereira, the congregation’s North India provincial led the burial services.
Father KC Thomas, who delivered the homily, described his confrere as “a sincere, humble, committed and dedicated man.”
Retired Bishops Alphonse Bilung of Rourkela and Lucas Kerketta of Sambalpur too attended the services along with Bishop Niranjan Sualsingh \of Sambalpur.
Many priests, nuns and seminarians from Khristo Jyoti, Sason, Sambalpur joined the relatives of Father Vadackumkara at the funeral.
Father Vadackumkara Thomas was born on December 24, 1967, as the seventh of nine children born to late Xavier and Mariakutty at Kappimala, in the Archdiocese of Tellicherry in Kerala, southern India.
After high school he joined the Society of the Divine Word in 1984. He did his novitiate from 1990-1991 and made his first vows on June 10, 19991. He made his final commitment on January 22, 1995. He spent six months at Kiralega for his diaconate ministry and pastoral exposure. He was ordained a priest on May 7, 1996. His first appointment in the province was as assistant parish priest at Jhunmur. Later he was appointed assistant pastor at Kahupani and Sundargarh until 1998.
His superiors, in recognition of his missionary commitment and intellectual capacity, sent him to Rome for further studies. He did his Licentiate in Sacred Scriptures in the Biblicum from 1990 to 2003. At his return, he taught at the Regional Theologate Sason for three years.
In 2012, he obtained a doctorate in Biblical Theology from the University of Munich, Germany. From 2012 to 2015 he served as a full time professor at the seminary and moderator of the SVD seminarians at Divya Jyot Sason.
In 2016, he was appointed rector of Divya Jyoti and professor at Sason seminary. He was getting ready to take theology classes in Solothurn in Switzerland this summer when the death occurred.
He suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed on June 22. He was rushed to the nearby JMJ Hospital at Sambalpur where the doctors tried to revive him without success. He died at about 5:50 pm that day.
Divine Word Father Victor Rodrigues, a seminary professor, hailed the rector a self-disciplined and responsible missionary. “His death has caused a void in Divya Jyoti community. It will certainly take a long time to fill the void that has been created suddenly by the demise of our beloved Rector,” he added.