By C.M. Paul
Shillong, Nov 18, 2019: Father Paul Vadakumpadam, who was made president of Sacred Heart Theological College at Mawlai in Shillong in August 2019, died of brain tumor discovered five months ago.
Father Vadakumpadam died at 11:45 am on November 18 at the Sacred Heart college. He was 67.
The Requiem Mass is scheduled for 1:30 pm on November 20 at St. Dominic Savio Parish, Mawlai, followed by a funeral cortège to the Catholic Cemetery at Laitumkhrah, says secretary of Salesian provincial of Shillong Father Daniel Cajee.
Father Vadakumpadam popularly known in northeastern India as Fr. V.V. Paul was the editor of Mission Today journal published from the Sacred Heart Theological College.
He had published between 1989 and 2015, a total of 12 books, 31 scholarly articles on missiology and theology and edited 50 issues of Mission Today Journal. Some of his books are used as textbooks in various theological colleges across the country.
Mission Today is the direct descendent of the Indian Missiological Review started by the institution builder of northeastern India later Salesian Father Sebastian Karotemprel in 1979 as a missiological and ecumenical research journal.
Another institution builder in northeastern India for over 50 years, Father M C. George, Father Vadakumpadam’s senior in school and college, remembers him as ace basket baller who converts every ball given to him into a basket.
Santiagu of Hyderabad Salesian province recalls the week-long annual retreat for the Salesians of the St Joseph, Hyderabad province that Father Vadakumpadam animated.
Thomas wrote in Bosco Information Service in January 2008: “Through his dynamic talks he led the confreres to reflect on their life and mission. The primary effort of the preacher was ‘to build the saint on the man.’ Thus the emphasis was clearly on being and becoming more humane and attaining sanctity in this process. True to being a specialist in the field of missiology, Fr. Paul invariably had the mission slant in all his presentations.”
Father Vadakumpadam’s talks on missionary animation, motivation and styles of carrying out the entrusted mission clearly laid the stress on being men of God, prior to taking up activities, Thomas added.
“Guided meditations on Christian leadership by Father Paul enabled the participants to reflect on the three major temptations faced by the religious in today’s world. He also indicated means and ways of overcoming this temptation and turning dangers into opportunities. Called to be signs and bearers of God’s love to His people was the basic theme of the retreat.”
Father Vadakumpadam was involved in the pastoral ministry in the Nongthymmai parish of Shillong and he was a much sought after teacher at Sacred Heart Theological College, Shillong.