By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Salesian Province of St John Paul II has mourned the death of Father Joseph Cilia SDB, on Monday morning at Nazareth Hospital in the city.
The Vice Provincial, Fr John Zosiama, invited all priests, friends and well-wishers of Fr Cilia to the Requiem Mass at the Don Bosco Youth Centre in Laitumkhrah at 5.30 pm.
Fr Cilia was suffering from age-related problems for some years. Despite his poor health, he never failed to meet friends and well wishers from all walks of life who came to greet and offer their best wishes to him till the last few days of his life.
It is also of interest to note that Fr Cilia joined the Salesian Congregation of Don Bosco when he was 19 in his native land Malta.
Information received from the Salesian Congregation says Fr Cilia hailed from the capital city of Malta, Valletta, where he was born in 1936.
In 1954 he joined the novitiate in his native land from where a couple of years later, in 1956, he left for India. Ten years later, on April 17, 1966, he was ordained priest by the then Bishop of Shillong, the late Archbishop Stephan Ferrando.
During his more than half a century in Meghalaya, Fr Cilia worked in the erstwhile composite state of Assam and Meghalaya, which include Guwahati in 1966, Sohra from 1969 to 1970, Pynursla from 1970 to 1972, the Laitumkhrah Cathedral Parish from 1972 to 1977 and in Jongksha, where with the late Fr Aloycius Sanglura they had founded the parish there.
From 1977 to 1980 Fr Cilia had a stint at Christ King College, Laitumkhrah. The period 1980 to 1983 saw Fr Cilia at the Salesian Training Centre in Laitumkhrah and eventually in 1983 he was assigned by the provincial to take charge as director of the Don Bosco Youth Centre in Shillong where he was instrumental in the construction of the new building of the centre.
For many years he was Spiritual Advisor to the Catholic Youth League.
He rigorously worked on various issues concerning the youth of the region particularly Shillong. Various matters like career orientation courses, value education, rehabilitation of addiction to substance abuse, counselling session on sex education and every sensitive and relevant issue pertaining to youth development was initiated and motivated.
The many who know Fr Cilia and his dedicated work for the youth were heard saying, “With Fr Cilia’s death, society at large and the youth of the North East in particular have lost a fatherly figure and an ardent and sincere friend,” adding, “the void caused by his death will be difficult to fill and that posterity will always remember and cherish his memory.”