SHILLONG: The Shillong Archdiocese has mourned the death of Fr Varkey Chittoor (88), the last of the three diocesan priests from South India who were the first to come to North East India as missionaries in the then two Catholic Church dioceses of Shillong and Dibrugarh.
Fr Chittoor passed away on Sunday at Nazareth Hospital where he had been ailing for more than a month.
Two other colleague priests of Fr Chittoor, Fathers John Mariae and Alexander, who had come with him in 1959, had predeceased him a few years earlier.
The Archdiocese of Shillong not only mourned the passing away of Fr Chittoor but also offered holy mass and prayers attended by the Catholic faithful.
During his more than sixty years of missionary work in North East India, Fr Chittoor’s work as priest of the Catholic Church was mainly in the Khasi Hills starting as assistant parish priests at Marbisu in 1959 and from 1966 to 1972 as parish priest of the same parish.
In his long years of Catholic Church ministry till his retirement in 1993, Fr Chittoor had served in the various mission stations of the Catholic Church in Khasi Hills.
Besides having widely traveled the length and breadth of the Khasi Hills, to preach the Gospel, Fr Chittoor had also mastered the Khasi language and he was loved by all sections of people. Among his most enduring legacy are his social welfare works which include the many schools the Catholic Church has in the Khasi Hills.
From 1994 till his death , Fr Chittoor had been serving as Spiritual Director and Confessor for the seminarians at Christ King College, Laitumkhrah.
For the last three days, soon after he died, the mortal remains of Fr Chittoor has been placed at the Archbishop’s House, Laitumkhrah, where large number of people had been coming to pay their respect.
The arrangements for his funeral on Tuesday, include the Concelebration Requiem Mass at 1.30 pm which will be followed by the funeral cortege to the Laitumkhrah Catholic Cemetery.
