By Purushottam Nayak
Berhampur: The Church in Odisha has mourned the death of a popular retreat preacher and a writer in Odia language.
Father Simon Eluvathinkal died on December 12, while undergoing his second dialysis in Holy Family Hospital New Delhi. He was 54.
He was taking classes for catechists of the Gurgaon Syro-Malankara diocese November 8-18. On November 22, he was hospitalized in the Holy Family Hospital managed by the Delhi Latin rite archdiocese at Okhla in southern New Delhi. He developed many complications.
His body was taken to St. Mary’s Cathedral Neb Sarai in southwest Delhi, the headquarters of the Gurgaon diocese.
The funeral is scheduled at 2 pm on November 14 at St. Peter’s Church, Nehru Nagar in Kuriachira, his home parish in Trichur diocese of Kerala.
Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of Berhampur has left for Kerala to attend the funeral.
Several people in Odisha mourned the priest’s death.
“Father Simon, you have gone from our sight, but never from our hearts,” said Father Purno Chandra Nayak secretary to the Bishop of Berhampur.
Father Pradeep Behera of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese mourned the death as “a great loss” for Catholics in Odisha.
According to him, many in Odisha had benefited spiritually from Father Eluvathinkal.
Father Eluvathinkal encouraged young Catholic men of Odisha to become priests. He preached retreats for deacons for the past five years. He had also conducted retreats in Odisha parishes.
He wrote Bochono Samikhya (Evaluation of Word of God),a three-volume Sunday reflection in Odia. He was editor-in-Chief of Anugraha Patrika (Blessing magazine),the newsletter of Berhampur diocese. He conducted Augraha Paribar ( Family of blessings) prayer service through webinar in Odia. He wrote book on Aradhona (Adoration).
Marshel Nayak, a 62-year-old layman of Mohana parish of Berhampur diocese, said the Catholics in Odisha would miss Father Eluvathinkal who helped in the spiritual renewal.
Father Chitaranjan Senapati of the Rayagada diocese, who had lived with Father Eluvathinkal, said he has lost “a friend, guide, teacher and a practical theologian and philosopher. “He was an Odia pandit (scholar) and a person with a great personality. We are grateful to God for giving this great missionary for Berhampur diocese and Odisha Church.”
The priest hailed Father Eluvathinkal as an “irreplaceable person in the Odisha Church” and added that they “gratefully remembered” the missionary for his contribution to the Church.
Father Eluvathinkal was born on April 18, 1966, at Chalakudy in Kerala’s Thrissur district. He was third among six children. One of them is a nun,
He entered St. Peter’s Minor Seminary in 1987. He studied philosophy and theology at Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune, Maharashtra, He was ordained a priest for Berhampur on October 5, 1997.
He spoke, preached and taught in Odia, Hindi, English and Malayalam, He held a master’s degree in Biblical theology.