By Matters India Reporter
Mannanam: As many as 56 newly ordained priests of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate Congregation (CMI) on January 4 celebrated thanksgiving Mass at St. Joseph’s Monastery Church in Mannanam in Kerala’s Kottayam district where their founder’s remains are kept.
Father Mathew Chandrankunnel, a member of the congregation and a professor of theology, said the young men were ordained priests recently for their 15 provinces. All are from Kerala but belong to various provinces of southern and northern India.
Father Chandrankunnel said the new priests had undergone training that lasted from ten to 15 years. They will now serve God and wider humanity all over the world, he told Matters India.
The Kerala-based congregation works in various parts of India and abroad. It had 2,597 members, including 1,900 priests in 2016.
The first indigenous Catholic religious congregation in India was founded in 1831 by Fathers Thomas Palackal and Thomas Porukara, along with Saint Kuriakose Chavara – all members of the Syro-Malabar Church.
From the beginning, they started preaching retreats both for priests and laity and promoted Sunday homilies to renew the Catholic community. In 1833, they started the first major seminary of the Syro-Malabar Church at Mannanam on May 11, 1831.
Initially, the congregation was known as the Servants of Mary Immaculate.
Father Palackal died in 1841 and Father Porukara in 184 and Father Chavara took the responsibility of managing the new congregation.
On December 8, 1855, Father Chavara and ten others took religious profession as members of the “Servants of Mary Immaculate. It became a pontifical congregation in 1887.