Indore: Hundreds of people attended the funeral of an Indian Divine Word missionary who was working in Kenya for the past four years.
Father Anto Poruthur died of brain hemorrhage in New Delhi on October 3. He was in India for holidays for a month. He came to the Indian capital the previous evening from Kerala, his native place. He died at 11:30 am. He was in late 60s.
Bishop Chacko Thottumarikal of Indore led the funeral services at Palda, a Divine Word parish near Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh state in central India.
The funeral was scheduled for 3 pm, but got delayed because of the late arrival of Fr Poruthur’s relatives from Kerala. Fr. Poruthur’s brothers came by air and other relatives reached by road.
Father Poruthur “was a source of inspiration for many in Nairobi,” said Sister Mary Sreeja, superior general of the Sisters of Notre Dame congregation. The priest used to call on her whenever she went to the Kenyan capital to meet her sisters working there. “He will be missed,” she added.
Fr Poruthur had worked in New Delhi for several years, before going to Kenya in December 2011. In Kenya, he was working in villages and remote areas, preaching the Gospel and managing schools for poor villagers. He was the spiritual director of the congregation’s Common Formation Center in Nairobi.
In Delhi, he was engaged in interreligious dialogue and retreat preaching. He has written several books. He wrote a book titled, “Beware Parents: Mind your children’s command” while he was in Kenya-Tanzania province.
Fr Poruthur was born in Parappur parish under Trichur archdiocese in Kerala. He was ordained a priest in December 1978 at St. John Nepumcian Church Parappur.