By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, May 30, 2022: The Indian Theological Association and others have mourned the death of Jesuit Father Joseph Mattam, who had accompanied generations of students in their theological research.
The death occurred at 9:55 pm on May 29 at the Jesuit infirmary in Jeevan Darshan, in Vadodara, a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. He was 85.
The funeral was held May 30 at Vadodara’s Shrine of Our Mother of the Forsaken, Vadodara.
Father Mattam was a member of the Gujarat Jesuit province for 66 years and a priest for 55 years.
Father Mattam was “the ground-zero for doing contextual theology in Asia,” says Jesuit Father Stanislaus Alla, who teaches moral theology in Delhi’s Vidyajyoti College of Theology.
According to him, Father Mattam was among the “pioneering visionary Jesuit teachers,” who “fired by the Second Vatican Council, accompanied his students in their theological research.”
The Indian Theological Association mourned the death of one its members, who it noted was a great contributor in the field of theology, especially in the area of Indian Contextual Theology.
“He taught me and many others in India. We are very much thankful to him for what we are today,” said the association president Jesuit Father Alangaram.
Father Stanislaus noted that Father Mattam took his students beyond libraries and classrooms to the poor to understand God’s action and to discover divine summons to transform the world. The life of the poor and their struggles became the locus where seekers can look for God, he added.
“By being a teacher in India as well as at other theology centers in Africa and Europe, Mattam became a bridge-builder between diverse streams of intercultural thoughts, values and ideals,” the moral theologian said.
Father Mattam discussed ‘Christian Anthropology’ in classes, conferences and retreats that challenged Catholics to become true disciples of Christ, Father Stanislaus added.
Inculturation and liberation, Father Stanislaus said, needed “authentic interpreters in post-independent India and Father Mattam collaborated with the other thinkers and theologians a”in this magnificent enterprise — of confronting what is wrong in the cultures and mindsets and ushering in the Reign of God.”
Father Mattam, a native of the southern Indian state of Kerala, was the founder and dean of the Jesuit Regional Theology College in Vadodara.
He taught in various theological institutes, including Vidyajyoti and Khristo Jyoti Mohavidyaloyo (light of Christ college), Sambalpur in Odisha.
Father Mattam was also a member of the Fellowship of Indian Missiologists, an ecumenical association.
He edited several books under the aegis of the Fellowship of Indian Missiologists along with other ecumenical theology professors and missiologists.
He was invited often to speak at national and international forums on religious issues.
This is the first time hearing about this priest theologian. May be because he was a priest. I extend mu condolence to the bereaved family members and the Jesuit society members. RIP.
Was deeply saddened to get this news. He was a great champion of an empowered laity. I was in regular touch with him. When he ordered a copy of my latest book The Jerusalem Code, I asked him to send the money by bank transfer. His reply shocked me. As a Jesuit he didn’t have a personal bank account so he had to trudge down to a post office to send me a money order. In contrast today we read of a priest committing suicide because of “financial problems”! What have we come to?
Fr. Joe Mattam has made invaluable contributions to contextual theologizing and renewal of Consecrated life. May God give him eternal rest!
Respectful farewell to Father Joe Mattam. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and let your perpetual light shine upon the departed soul.