By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Aug 22, 2024: Father Joseph Kizhakkekara, former Salesian provincial of Calcutta and Delhi who worked among young people, died of cardiac arrest August 22 in New Delhi. He was 87.
A message from Salesian Delhi provincial Father Davis Maniparamben says the death occurred at 9:45 am in the Holy Family Hospital at Okhla. Father Kizhakkekara was a resident of the Don Bosco Technical Institute Okhla, south Delhi.
Father Provincial’s message: “He had fall this morning around 8:30 am and as he had not come out of the room, Father A M Jose went to check on him. He lifted him up and helped him onto his bed. He was conscious, and had some coffee. However, he soon vomited, and showed signs of pain and sweating. Medical emergency was called from Holy Family Hospital. He had suffered a severe heart attack. CPU was administered to him and he was rushed to the Hospital. All efforts to resuscitate him were in vain, and he was declared dead by the doctor at 9.45 am. He had received anointing of the sick.”
The Marian devotee died on the feast of the Queenship of Mary.
The funeral Mass will be held at the technical institute and burial in the cemetery of the Shrine of Our Lady of Health, Okhla, Masihgarh parish.
Father Kizhakkekkara was the episcopal vicar for the religious in the archdiocese of Delhi.
He was born on October 1, 1936, as the second of four children of Joseph and Teresa of Kizhakkekara in Palai, Kerala. He joined the Salesians in 1951 and pronounced his first vows in 1956. He was ordained a priest on April 17, 1966, at Sacred Heart College, Mawalai, Shillong.
In the 1960s, he taught Salesian students in Bandel Seminary, West Bengal. In the 1970s, he was the principal and later rector of the Salesian College and Studentate of Philosophy in Darjeeling in the same state.
He pioneered the Salesian youth ministry in Kolkata (then Calcutta) becoming the chaplain for Young Christian Students Bengal (in 1974.
He also encouraged outreach ministry for street children known today as Ashalayam (abode of hope).
As the tenth provincial of Calcutta (1978-1984), Father Kizhakkekara pushed the Salesian mission among Santhals and as first provincial of New Delhi province (1997-2003) he promoted the same in the Chhotanagpur area.
He conceived “Bosco World,” a permanent exhibition on the life and mission of Don Bosco, that the congregation’s rector major Father Pascual Chavez inaugurated in New Delhi.
The rector major said the exhibition was an expression of the Salesian ‘grace of unity,’ of planning for the future, a means for enabling on-going formation and a powerful means to foster unity.
Respectful farewell to Father Joseph Kizhakkekara. RIP.