By Anand Mathew

Coorg, Nov 8, 2021: Father Snehanand, a member of the Indian Missionary Society (IMS) who trained innumerable batches of future missionary priests and religious sisters, died November 8 in Mysore, Karnataka.

The death occurred at 6:10 am in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Mysore. He was coma for the past ten days because of Hypoglycemia. He was first treated at J.S.S. Medical College. He had turned 69 on October 31.

His funeral services will be held November 9 at St. Joseph’s Ashram, Devarapura, Coorg, in Karnataka. Bishop Sebastian Adayanthrath of Mandya, his companion in Pune Papal Seminar, will lead the services.

Father Prasen Raj, the IMS administrator general, has arrived for the funeral along with a large number of relatives, students and friends.

Father Snehanand had taught philosophy at Vishwa Jyoti Gurukul, the major seminary of the IMS. He had also given missionary formation to many batches of IMS seminarians and other religious congregations and dioceses. He was credited with instilling in his students an ardent missionary spirit, deep spirituality, love and care for nature and a love for the suffering poor.

After 16 years of teaching philosophy, he became formator of spirituality after a three-year course in counseling psychology at St. Anselm’s institute in Kent, England. He then served for seven year as the novice master of the IMS novitiate in Coorg, a job he carried out with deep commitment.

He also worked in National Vocation Service Centre in Pune for three years. He then returned to Christnagar to be the rector for six years. In this period, he contributed much to the Philosophate, working for a deeper experiential spirituality for the future priests.

He was an ardent environmentalist, and served mother earth by planting hundreds of trees making the compound lush, green and free from toxin and carbon dioxide. He also took initiative in installing a mega solar power system for the entire Christnagar premises.

Father Snehanand was a visiting professor for ten years in St. Joseph’s Seminary in Allahabad, Morning Star College in Calcutta, Khrist Premalaya in Bhopal, Masihi Gurukul in Agra, OCD Seminary in Faridabad and Mater Dei Institute in Goa.

He also taught for three years each in Siddhi Vihara, Mysore and Don Bosco Renewal Centre, Bangalore and Ishvani, Pune. He was also a facilitator of formation programs in Philippines and Sri Lanka. He served as a psycho therapist and counselor for various congregations for women and seminaries.

When communal violence broke out in Lohata in the outskirts of Varanasi following the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, Father Snehanand coordinated Gandhians and other social activists to give physical and psychological relief and comfort to the riot victims. He also tried to unite people divided in the name of religion and brought them together in a prayer meeting presided by Mother Teresa.

He continued to be a member of Sadbhavana Abhiyan (goodwill campaign) for promotion of communal harmony in Varanasi.

Father Snehanand was born on October 31, 1952, at Anickadu in Kerala’s Kottayam district. After his high school studies in 1968, he joined IMS in Varanasi and made his first profession on June 29, 1972. He studied philosophy and theology at the Pune Papal Seminary, and was ordained a priest on April 23, 1981.

He began his priestly life at the newly established IMS mission in Gajraula in Meerut diocese. He then came to Varanasi to become a resident professor of philosophy in Vishwa Jyoti Gurukul, Christnagar.

In 2018, Father Snehanand was assigned to Nav Sadhana Regional Pastoral Centre.

In March 2019, he organized a national seminar, “Moving Towards an Authentic Witness to the Mercy of Jesus in India Today” on behalf of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India on the occasion of the golden jubilee of the Post Vatican II national seminar held in Bangalore in 1969.

While the seminar was on in Varanasi, he was undergoing an open heart surgery in Kochi, Kerala.

He recovered and returned to Varanasi. Later went to Coorg and worked on updating of his congregation’s constitutions and the directory.

At 7:30 pm on October 29, he was found lying unconscious in his room. He suffered from hypoglycemia that damaged his brain. All his 11 sisters and brothers and other members of the family were with him in the past ten days as he struggled between life and death.