By Matters India
New Delhi, April 29, 2020: Father Michael Boniface, a priest of Simla-Chandigarh diocese, died of a massive heart attack in a remote mission state in Haryana state. He was 42.
“He died around 9:30 last night. The death of such a young priest is a great loss for the diocese,” Bishop Ignatius Loyola Mascarenhas of Simla-Chandigarh told Matters India on April 29 over phone.
The priest was serving a mission station in Pondur in Haryana state, the bishop added. The mission is some 60 km southwest of New Delhi.
“We have lots of restrictions because of the nationwide lockdown,” the bishop said added that vicar general Father Dominic Bosco has gone to Pondur to bring the priest’s body to Chandigarh, the diocesan headquarters.
Father Bosco offered Mass in the mission church before bringing the body to Chandigarh, Bishop Mascarenhas said.
The burial in the Christian Cemetery of Chandigarh was scheduled for 1 pm on April 29.
Father Boniface was a native of Vallavilai in the Kanniyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
He was ordained a priest on May 17, 2003.