(ANS - Shillong) – Fr Sebastian Karotemprel died of a heart attack on Sunday 20 July.  Fr Sebastian was an Indian Salesian, an eminent theologian and former member of the Pontifical Theological Commission. The 83-year-old priest was hospitalized for three weeks at the Woodland Hospital in Shillong, following an accidental fall on 29 June, from which complications arose.

His death marks the passing of a prominent Asian theologian. "A legend of our times, a scholar and a collaborator in missionary work in the north-east." So says the Salesian Provincial of Guawahati, Fr Thomas Vattathara. The Salesian Archbishop of Shillong, Archbishop Dominic Jala recalls his great "academic rigour and tireless work."

Born on 15 September 1931 in Paikai, in Kerala, Sebastian Karotemprel became a Salesian in 1952 and a priest in 1962. He studied at the Gregorian University in Rome and he was appointed Rector of the House of Theology of the Sacred Heart of Shillong at a time when the college was short of everything.  Thanks to the support of some Italian benefactors, he  built accommodation for students and an impressive four-story library dedicated to the memory of Bishop Otto Hopfenmuller,  first prefect of the Apostolic Prefecture of Assam.

In an academic career spanning several decades, he was lecturer in Missiology at the Pontifical Urban University and taught theology in various Indian and foreign faculties. He was the author of about twenty books, an international speaker and member of the International Theological Commission set up by John Paul II and presided over by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He also took part in the Historical-Theological Commission for the Great Jubilee of 2000.

He founded the magazine "Mission Today" (formerly "Indian Missiological Review") and the Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Culture, Shillong, a highly valued museum on the peoples and cultures of West India. He contributed successfully to projects by the publisher Vendrame Institute Publications, by Don Bosco Institute and Assam Don Bosco University.

"He was a Salesian with a deep spirituality, very determined and active as a teacher.  He found time to join his students in recreation and was always available on Sundays to hear their confessions.  Fr Jose Anikuzhikattil, one of his former students now working at the Generalate, says: “He was an example to all of us in the way he performed his duties, for the authenticity of his theological thought and his concern for the poor people of the place."

In 1992, in a short pamphlet titled Nothing Can Separate Me, he wrote, "Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ, in the struggles of my final hours. At the moment of death I will be united forever with my Lord Jesus Christ."

The funeral of Fr Karotemprel will be celebrated tomorrow, 23 July, in the cathedral of Shillong. The celebrant will be his younger brother, Bishop Gregory Karotemprel, bishop emeritus of Rajkot.

Published 22/07/2014