Road mishap kills two Carmelite seminarians in Odisha’s Kandhamal

By Purushottam Nayak

Raikia, Jan 4, 2021: The Order of the Discalced Carmelites and the Church in Odisha January 4 mourned the death of two seminarians in a road accident in the eastern Indian state.

Brothers Masin Digal and Liudas Parichha were going to a shrine in Kandhamal district with seven others when the accident occurred.

Their Bolero jeep slipped off a mountain road and fell into a 70-feet gorge in Karada Ghati near Dantaling in the Sorada area of Kandhamal district, according to a message from the rector of Pushpashrama (hermitage of flowers) Institute of Philosophy managed by the congregation at Mysore in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The accident spot is some 285 km southwest of Bhubaneswar, the state capital.

While Brother Digal died on the spot Brother Parichha on the way to the hospital. Another person, whose name is not mentioned, also died in the accident. The other six were seriously wounded and admitted to a hospital in Raikia in Kandhamal district.

“I cannot imagine this tragic incident of my beloved brother who is no more. It is really a shocking and disheartening news for me,” bemoaned Brother Digal’s sister Manita Digal, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph, who teaches in the Little Flower School in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

She has rushed to attend the funeral scheduled at 10 am on January 5 in Sugadabadi substation of the Our Lady of Charity Parish in Raikia, under the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese.

Father Pradosh Chandara Nayak, the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, will officiate the last rites of the seminarians. “With deep sorrow I express my condolence to the families and dear near ones, the provincial and staff of Delhi of both seminarians,” he said.

The two seminarians, who hailed from Kandhamal, had gone home December 28 for vacation. The press note says they were visiting home after three years because of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns.

Both had joined the congregation’s Delhi Province on June 1, 2016, at San Juan Ashram at Una, Hoshiarpur, Punjab. Their priestly formation had taken them to various parts of India. After intermediate studies at Mount Carmel Ashram at Hoshiarpur, they underwent pre-novitiate training at Ormajii, Ranch, capital of Jharkhand. Their novitiate was at Dehradun, Uttarakhand, where they made their first vows on May 1, 2021.

Brother Digal was born on June 17, 1998, in Kandhamal district’s Sugadabadi village. He was the third among six children of George Digal and Mistovasini Digal.

Brother Parichha is a native of Bhaliapoda village under Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Parish, Mondasoro.

“I had offered my son for the kingdom of God but could not see my son as a priest. Man proposes God disposes. It is the will of God,” said Mrutyujay and Monjori Parichha, parents of Parichha. The seminarian has an elder brother.

Mondasoro parish priest Father Manoranjan Singh says the seminarians’ deaths are “really a great loss to the Catholic Church. Two young seminarians had aspired to become priests but met this tragic death. The entire parish is mourning their deaths,” he told Matters India.