Sunday prayers reverberate with tributes
SHILLONG: The Archbishop’s House is yet to decide on the funeral date and time of Archbishop Dominic Jala, who was killed in a car crash in the United States of America.
The procedure of funeral will be decided once the Catholic authorities in Shillong are informed of the arrival of the mortal remains of Jala to Shillong from the USA.
“The procedure of funeral cannot be decided now because it is not known as to when will body will arrive here”, sources in the Bishop’s House told The Shillong Times on Sunday.
So far there has been no message from the Pope or the Vatican.
Sources said there is a delay in the arrival of the body since it was an accident case and only after the completion of necessary legal formalities, the process will start.
The accident took place on October 10 at 2 pm at Colusa County, Oakland, California (2:30 am IST on October 11) when the car (Toyota Prius) in which Jala (68) and two other priests, Fr. Mathew Vellankal and Fr. Joseph Parekatt, both from Kerala, were travelling in collided with a tractor/trailer.
While the Archbishop and Fr. Mathew died on the spot, Fr. Joseph was admitted at a hospital with serious injuries but he is reported to be stable.
Fr. Mathew, who was the parish priest of Saint Bonaventure, Oakland was driving the vehicle.
On Sunday, Catholic churches in Meghalaya prayed for the departed soul of Jala.
Catholic faithful gathered inside the Cathedral of Mary Help of Christians, Laitumkhrah for the usual Sunday afternoon service while just outside the church walls, workers were busy preparing the burial site for Jala. Clueless on change of site
One of the wishes of Jala was to be buried on the premises of the Cathedral instead of being interned inside the church.
A priest at the Bishop’s House said, “It is not known as to why he had wanted it, we don’t know the reason for that”.
Outside the Bishop’s House, a photograph of Jala was displayed with a few mourners sitting across while other faithful trickled in and prayed for his departed soul.
Besides church-goers, visiting tourists also paid tribute to the Archbishop.
There were hectic activities on the church premises with the faithful- young and old- attending the Sunday service till evening when the concelebrated requiem mass was held.
Environmentalist
A priest at the Bishop’s House recalled that Jala was an environmentalist as he went back to the time when a procession was held in which Jala stressed on the importance of preserving Mother nature and to keep the environment plastic-free.
The Archbishop came from a humble background, the priest said, adding he had also raised many concerns of the poor.
A well learned man, Jala knew many languages, including Garo, Mizo, Hindi, Assamese while among the foreign languages he was well versed with Italian and was an expert in Latin. He had also earned a Doctorate in Liturgy.